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THE BIBLE: 



A Scientific Revelation. 



BY 



/ 



Rev. CHARLES C. ADAMS, S, T.D, 

Author of 'Creation a Recent Work of God''; ''The Life of 
Our Lord Jesus ChyistJ" 



APS 7 ]xmf\ 



NEW YORK: 

JAMES POTT, 12 ASTOR PLACE. 

1882. 



3^ 



5\\ 
A3 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1882, by 

JAMES POTT, 
in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



Printed by 

Nathan Brothers, 

New York. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Speculative scientists say, That a mira- 
cle is impossible, because physical laws 
are immutable. The opinion is absurd, 
because creation began with a miracle. 
All science is founded on that miracle, 
and many physical laws are as miraculous 
in their operation as they were in their 
inception. 

A miracle is a supernatural act, caused 
by GoD*s will. All physical laws, there- 
fore, are subject to His will. Miracles 
and scientific action united in the creation 
of all physical laws ; yet they are liable 
to interruption by man's will. 

The most essential physical and spirit- 
ual laws are partially under man's control. 
He can modify even attraction and gravi- 
tation ; he can violate God's most essen- 
tial spiritual laws, and dishonor His name, 
and word, and works. 



IV. V INTRODUCTION, 



It is therefore irrational to doubt that 
God can control His laws by His will, 
which enacted them. He doubtless can 
do so far more easily than an engineer 
can control or reverse the power of an 
engine which he has constructed. 

The creation of the vegetable world, 
with its kind of life in its seed, was a 
miracle; but the growth of each one was 
according to a physical law. The crea- 
tion of animals, with a soul-life, each one 
after its kind, was a miracle ; but the 
reproduction of their lives after their 
kinds, was by a physical law. 

The creation of man, with an immortal 
spiritual life connected with his animal- 
soul-life, was a miracle ; but the ability 
to reproduce his life after his kind was 
by a physical law. 

This analogy exists in the spiritual 
world. Mankind and the material crea- 
tion, according to the Bible, are tending 
towards a spiritual condition. Spiritual 
laws produce spiritual life, good or evil, 
after its kind. 

The beginning of a righteous human 



INTRODUCTION. V. 

spiritual life was a miracle. The concep- 
tion of Jesus by the Spirit of God was a 
miracle. He Himself is the miracle of 
miracles, because He was, and is, a mira- 
cle worker. The work of Redemption 
began as Creation did, by a miracle, and 
the greatest one God ever wrought — so 
far as is revealed — was His becoming 
incarnate in matter and man's nature. 

It was as natural an act of Jesus' higher 
nature as the Son of God, to control the 
winds and the waves, to change water 
to wine, and to raise the dead, as it was 
to create the winds and water, to make 
grapes to produce wine, or to give life 
to man. 

Furthermore, Christ said of Creation's 
end, that as the Son of Man, He would 
gome in the glory of the Father, and 
raise the dead ; and St. Peter adds what 
he could have learned only from Christ, 
''The Heavens shall pass away with a 
great noise, and the elements shall melt 
with fervent heat, the Earth also, and the 
works that are therein shall be burned 



VI. INTRODUCTION. 

All that IS confirmed by our knowledge 
of the nature of the elements, and that 
such would be the result were such a 
melting to take place. 

But the Apostle adds also, ** Neverthe- 
less we, according to His promise, look 
for new heavens and a new earth, wherein 
dwelleth righteousness." 

Any reasonable person, who believes 
in these Revelations, must be convinced 
that no one is competent to investigate 
the physical side of them without con- 
sidering it in both relations. 

But speculative scientists refuse to 
recognize the Bible revelation, and go 
beyond their legitimate sphere by deny- 
ing the possibility of a miracle, which does 
not belong to physics, only as a collateral 
work of God, and so is superhuman. 

Their speculations, therefore, are worth- 
less, and as untenable as the ravings of 
religious fanatics against true science. 
They have supreme faith in their own 
reason, but none in the God who gave it 
to them. 

God has revealed Himself to man in a 



INTRODUCTION, Vll. 

three-fold way. In His Works, in His 
Words, and in His Life. The first mani- 
fests His power, the second shows His 
wisdom, the third reveals His love and 
mercy to us men. To separate these, in 
their mutual relations, is to sunder what 
God has joined together. The result 
must be failure to discern the truth, or 
His designs. 

This volume was written, chiefly with 
the intent, to counteract the evil of such 
modern thinkers as propose a better 
religion than Christianity. One of them 
recently published his Creed in the fol- 
lowing words : 

**I do not hesitate to say that Humanity is greater than 
any god, because all the gods in every age have only been 
ideals imaged from and created by herself. She has written 
all Bibles, so is greater than any Bible. She has founded all 
religions, so is greater than any religion. She has discovered 
all science, so is greater than any science. She is the Supreme 
Being on this planet." 

Three thousand years ago Solomon 
said, '* Seest thou a man wise in his own 
conceit ! There is more hope of a fool 
than of him." As it was then, so it is 
now. 



viii. INTRODUCTION. 

The writer probably did not know that 
he was teaching the old Pagan Pantheism. 
Its religion and morality were scientific. 
Its faith was Nature and the order of the 
universe, in which God and men had 
their proper places. Christianity changed 
that, and made God the Author of Nature, 
and man subject to His physical and 
spiritual laws. In every age since, in- 
creased knowledge of His laws has con- 
firmed the faith of the best men who 
lived, in their wisdom, and in God's 
beneficence. 

St. Mary's Rectory, 1882. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGE. 

The effect of Science on the Bible. — Creation and the 
Bible the source of Science. — The Bible claims to be 
a Revelation from God, the Creator of all things. — 
Error of Scientists and Theologians. — Why Scientists 
differ, 13 

CHAPTER II. 

Physical Science is in its infancy. — Theologians are 
co-workers with Scientists. — Physical Science cannot 
solve the mysteries of Creation. — Why the Ancients 
failed as Scientists. — Christ taught men how to 
think. — The Spirit of God the agent. — Two classes 
of scientists, --.------20 

CHAPTER III. 

THE FIRST DAY'S CREATIVE WORK. 

Time Began.— Creation a Miracle. — The Earth an Emi- 
nent part of Creation. — Bible Science. — The Laws 
of Matter. — Creation Sudden and Recent. — Light. — 
Day and Night. — Creation unfinished, - - - 28 



X. CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER IV. 
THE SECOND DA Y' S CREA TIVE WORK. 

PAGE. 

The Firmament Created. — Mechanical Agency. — The 
Atmosphere. — The completion of the Second Day's 
Work, 40 

CHAPTER V. 

THE THIRD DAY'S CREATIVE WORK. 

The Earth fitted for Plants and Animals. — God named 
the Land, and Water, and the Sea. — The Vegetable 
Kingdom formed. — Geology confirms it. — No devel- 
opment in the Vegetable World, - - - -49 

CHAPTER VI. 

THE FOURTH DA Y' S CREATIVE WORK. 

The Divine order of Creation. — Light for the Sun and 
Earth. — ^A Creative Day. — Sun and Moon Light- 
bearers. — The Earth unique. — Solar System in 
motion. — The Sun. — Christ in Creation. — Creation's 
End, - 58 

CHAPTER VII. 

THE FIFTH DA F'5 CREA TIVE WORK. 

New Exercise of God's Power and Wisdom. — Marine 
Creatures Created. — Fossil Historians. — Each one 
after its kind. — Geology confirms Scripture, - - 75 



CONTENTS, xi. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE SIXTH DAY'S CREA TIVE WORK, 

Cattle, Creeping things and Beasts Created. — No ground 
for Evolution. — Testimony of the Chalk. — St, Paul. 
— Man named the Animals, - - - - - 8i 

CHAPTER IX. 

MAN CREATED, 

Man's dominion. — A link between Matter and God. — A 
Day. — Man first an Animal, then a Man. — Woman. 
— Soul and Spirit. — Christ in Creation. — Garden of 
Eden. — Satan.— Remedy for Evil, - - - - 88 

CHAPTER X. 

SIXTH DAY'S WORK CONTINUED, 

Man's Intellect and Anatomy testify to Genesis. — Geology 
confirms it, — Man's free Will. — ^Another Revelation 
required. — Time. — Prof. Huxley. — No evidence of 
Evolution. — Prof. Harvey. — Good consequent on 
the knowledge of Evil, ------ loi 

CHAPTER XI. 

THE INCARNA TION 

The perfection of Creation. — Satan. — Covenants. — The 
Redeemer. — Prophecies. — Gabriel's Annunciation. — 
The Angels.— Christ essential in Creation, — The 
Magii, — Tiberius. — Christ began a New Era. - - no 



XI 1. CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XII. 
CHRIST'S MESSIANIC KINGDOM. 

PAGE. 

Redemption provided before Creation. — The Church. — 
Christianity older than Creation. — Christ in two 
Kingdoms. — He showed the Relation between the 
Material and Spiritual Worlds. — The Unity of 
God's Revelations, - - - - - - 126 

CHAPTER XIII. 

CHRIST'S MINISTRY ON EARTH. 

The World in Christ's Day. — Evil explained. — His 
Divinity unknown until after His Ascension. — He 
began a New Era. — He Revolutionized the Spirit of 
the Age. — One more stage of Creation, - - - 138 

CHAPTER XIV. 

THE REIGN OE THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 

The Comforter. — The Mystery of His Reign. — Christ in 
the Spirit. — In the Apostles. — To Train Men for 
Paradise and Heaven. — His Power in the Ages to 
Come, 152 

CHAPTER XV. 

CREA TION FINISHED. 

Creation to introduce a Redeemer. — Revelation a Trilogy. 
— Christ its central object. — No break in the chain 
of His Revelations. — New Heavens and New Earth. 
— Creation finished, 163 



The Bible a Scientific Revelation. 



CHAPTER I. 

The effect of Science on the Bible. — Creation and the 
Bible the source of Science. — The Bible claims to be a 
Revelation from God, the Creator of all things. — Error of 
Scientists and Theologians. — Why Scientists differ. 

THERE is nothing in human history 
more remarkable than the progress of 
modern science, in this nineteenth cen- 
tury, respecting the laws of matter, force, 
and motion, and their application to the 
business and enjoyments of physical life. 
The same is true also of the discoveries 
of the more subtle laws of life, light, and 
magnetism. 

And these investigations have helped 
us to better understand the higher spirit- 
ual laws and forces revealed in the Bible, 
which constitute the whole of science ; 
that is, of all laws as they are known to 



H 



THE BIBLE 



God, so far as they come within reach of 
man*s observation. 

Every new discovery in physical laws 
is enlarging our views of the wisdom and 
wonders of the visible and invisible 
worlds, and of the intimate relations be- 
tween them, and proving the unity and 
harmony of their laws. Many elementary 
laws of matter exist in man's body, joined 
with spiritual laws that constitute his 
humanity. 

And we are discovering that what God 
and the Bible call science includes all the 
laws of the visible and invisible universe, 
so far as man is concerned with them. 
And that they are revealed in the best 
way to awaken his curiosity, to develop 
his moral and intellectual nature, to exer- 
cise his faith, inspire the love of God, and 
cause obedience to His laws. 

This truth was known a thousand years 
before Christ. The Psalmist said, *' It is 
God who teacheth man science," ^ ^ * 
and ** the entrance of Thy word giveth 
light and understanding unto the simple." 
These include both branches of science 



A SCIENTIFIC REVELATION, 



15 



revealed in the Bible, and it is vain to 
expect to understand the one without the 
help of the other. 

The Bible revelation embraces the 
whole universe of God, and penetrates into 
all the mysteries of God and eternity, of 
Heaven and Hell, as well as of Creation, 
and refers to laws and truths which could 
be revealed by no one but their Author. 
Without it man would not have known 
that creation had a beginning, nor its 
design, nor how the drama of time will 
end, nor whence he came, and what will 
be his future destiny, nor anything of 
God's moral and spiritual laws, or the 
duties he owes to Him. 

The Bible claims to be a revelation 
from the Almighty God, who created the 
heavens and earth, and as their elements 
and forces have in themselves the laws 
which constitute physical science, the rev- 
elation must be scientific to be of any use 
to men who study these laws, or be any 
evidence to satisfy their minds that one 
person was their Author. That is, the 
laws of the created and written revelations 



1 6 THE BIBLE 



must be in perfect harmony, so far as 
there are any relations between them, 
and such is positively the case. 

The Bible alone bridges over the seem- 
ing chasm between these two revelations, 
between creation and the Creator, be- 
tween matter and life, between force and 
mind, between natural and spiritual laws, 
and reveals their mutual relations so far as 
we are able to discern them. And it 
gives the only reasonable and probable 
account man has of those mysteries. 

Without a Bible the ancients aimed to 
prove matter eternal, the result of the 
concourse of fortuitous atoms, and there 
are but three ways imaginable by which 
creation began : I. It is self-existent and 
eternal. II. Or it was the result of mat- 
ter and forces having in themselves chem- 
ical laws which caused the organization. 
III. Or it was created, as the Bible says, 
by a self-existent Almighty Personal 
Being, called God, and we should have 
no name for such a being without the 
Bible. 

Science teaches that matter was not 



A SCIENTIFIC RE VELA TION. 



17 



eternal, and could not be self-created, 
because something cannot come from 
nothing, and there can be no law, nor life, 
nor motion, without a Creator of it, and 
superior to it. That admission compels 
the investigator to seek for some other 
origin of creation. 

And nowhere else is there a reasonable 
explanation of it but in the Bible. That 
refutes the eternity of matter, or self-pro- 
duction, saying that it had a beginning. 
God created and organized it by physical 
laws, under His will and direction, into 
worlds and systems, and gave them their 
laws. 

At the same time He created all things 
on the earth, plants and trees after their 
kinds, and animals, and all living creat- 
ures, and man after their kinds as they 
now exist, to produce themselves un- 
changeably after their kinds. And none 
but God could have looked forward six 
thousand years, and made a revelation to 
refute the unbelief of men whom He 
foresaw would deny His words and 
works. 



I 8 THE BIBLE 



It is an error of both scientists and 
theologians who assert that the Bible was 
not given to teach man science, and that 
it has no order, method, or classification, 
for it is positive in all those particulars ; 
and they are such as only God, their 
Creator, could have given. And it has 
taken man six thousand years to discover 
their meaning and mysterious depths, and 
to interpret the synoptical and scientific 
account of creation, revealed to Adam by 
God, and transmitted by Noah to the 
world after the deluge. Job, and Moses, 
and the Psalmist, and later prophets, and 
Jesus Christ, all testify to its truth. 

Some skeptics say that the Bible is an 
old, worn out fable, no longer useful in 
the world, in the onward movement of 
human thought, and so deny its Divine 
origin, and prophesy that its fall as a 
fetich, which it has been to some credulous 
people, will take down with it all popular 
religion, and prepare the way for the new 
scientific religion. Nevertheless every 
stage of progress in science has helped to 
a better understanding of the Bible. 



A SCIENTIFIC RE VELA TION. 



19 



Men who study only the material and 
dark side of God's revelations, or physical 
laws, and know nothing of their harmony 
and relations to the spiritual laws, as the 
Bible presents them, must come to differ- 
ent conclusions from those who study 
both as parts of a connected revelation of 
God to man. Designed to make known 
not only His words and works, but also 
His own nature, power, and wisdom, and 
to assist in developing his spirit and in- 
tellect, with reference to his well-being in 
time, and his preparation for a higher life 
and condition in eternity. 



20 THE BIBLE 



CHAPTER II. 

Physical Science is in its infancy. — Theologians are co- 
workers with Scientists. — Physical Science cannot solve the 
mysteries of Creation. — Why the Ancients failed as Scien- 
tists. — Christ taught men how to think. — The Spirit of God 
the Agent. — Two classes of Scientists. 

PHYSICAL science is in its infancy. It 
is only within the present century that 
it has established some of the fundamental 
laws of astronomy and chemistry, of 
geology and biology, without which it was 
impossible to imagine how the earth was 
created. These laws perfectly accord 
with, and assist in explaining, the work 
of creation, as it is revealed in the Bible. 
Thus the tables are turned on the specula- 
tive scientists, and they will be compelled 
to look to the Bible to find light to guide 
them to the truth, as to the origin of all 
things. 

It is only a little over a century since 
oxygen was discovered, and has since been 
found one of the most abundant elements 



A SCIENTIFIC REVELATION. 21 

in the crystalline rocks, and in the air and 
the water, as well as in the sun and other 
worlds. And it has only recently been 
found out that it^ and other gases, can be 
liquefied, and that there is a mutual con- 
vertibility of motion and heat, of light 
and electricity, and magnetism. And it 
proves how impossible it was to ascertain 
how God created the earth, until these 
facts were known. 

At the time oxygen was discovered, the 
ablest scientists denied that the billions 
of remains of animals in a fossil state 
ever had formed parts of living creatures. 
And it is only within the last decade that 
the ablest scientists have given up the 
theory that animal or vegetable life can 
be produced from matter — or in any 
way, except as the Bible teaches, from 
antecedent life, and each kind after its 
own kind. 

Every stage of this advance has been 
helped by theologians as well as scientists. 
And we see now how impossible it was to 
interpret the Bible account of creation 
until these facts were known ; and the 



2 2 THE BIBLE 



disputes between scientists and theolo- 
gians were settled, and those laws firmly 
established. Thus it has resulted that 
neither the mistakes of scientists, nor 
their disagreements respecting physical 
laws and facts, nor the mistakes and fears 
of theologians — fears lest science would 
undermine the Bible — have injured re- 
ligion, or retarded the progress of science. 
The contests have helped to develop and 
confirm the truth in both. 

Scientists admit that, by searching the 
laws of matter, they cannot find out God. 
There He is unknowable. There is much 
that passes for science which is only spec- 
ulation. Nevertheless the unity and har- 
mony of the created and revealed laws 
teach one lesson. Both display infinite 
wisdom. Both have the same hidden 
peculiarities and unite their testimony 
that one Law-giver enacted them ; and 
that both must have had, as the Bible 
says, so far as man is concerned, a com- 
mon origin. 

There are difficulties arising from our 
imperfect knowledge of both kinds of 



A SCIENTIFIC RE VELA TION, 2 3 

laws, and of their mutual relations. But 
every year we are learning more of them, 
and of their harmony. And that physi- 
cal science cannot throw any light on the 
mysteries of the spiritual laws ; but that 
the latter do help much towards the un- 
derstanding of the former. 

The ancients failed to make any pro- 
gress in science, because they had no 
knowledge of the telescope, and micro- 
scope, and spectroscope. Nor of practi- 
cal chemistry, and the part it played in 
the manifold combinations which the 
gases made with the elementary matter 
in forming the mineral, vegetable, and 
animal kingdoms. Nor how motion, and 
light, and electro-magnetic force helped 
to organize creation, as it is represented 
in Genesis, and now is. 

And above all, the ancients had not the 
knowledge of the relations of natural 
and spiritual laws, nor of the inductive 
mode of reasoning, and conveying truths 
by their analogies, such as Christ re- 
vealed. He first taught men how to 
think and to reason, in ways to which 



24 THE BIBLE 



modern science traces its beginning. 
But it was more especially the gift of the 
Holy Spirit, who caused the organization 
of matter, and the creation of life, whom 
Christ sent into the world after His glori- 
fication in the Godhead. He has en- 
lightened men's intellects, guided them 
into all truth, and gradually illuminated 
the realms of theology and science. He 
is the sole cause of the increased power 
of modern human thought, discoveries, 
and inventions. 

We discover the nature and design of 
physical laws by reason, observation, and 
experiment. We discern the nature and 
design of spiritual laws by faith and ex- 
perience. Both laws are united in man ; 
and, though they are encompassed by 
mysteries, there is no antagonism be- 
tween them. Their union — universally 
considered — ^constitutes the science of 
God, so far as it is revealed and adapted 
to man, and his present and future condi- 
tion. 

Indeed, St. Paul says, faith is essential 
to understand the original creative work : 



A SCIENTIFIC .REVELATION' 



25 



"By faith we understand that the worlds 
were framed by the Word of God ; so 
that things which are seen were not 
made of things which do appear." And 
again : ** For the invisible things of Him 
from the creation of the world are clearly 
seen, being understood by the things that 
are made, even His eternal power and 
Godhead ; so that they are without ex- 
cuse " who do not believe. 

Three thousand years ago the Psalm- 
ist — the wisest scientist then living, be- 
cause he was enlightened by God, and 
had studied both laws of God's revela- 
tions — said: '*Thy Word is a lantern 
unto my feet, and a light unto my 
paths.'' But now Comte says, ^*A11 
knowledge is founded on facts;, or phe- 
nomena, and all else is unknowable." 

These two men represent two classes 
of modern scientists. One rejects God's 
latest revelation, and trusts to reason 
and experiments to find his facts. The 
other, exercising faith, reason and experi- 
ence, finds in physical laws a full con- 
firmation of the correspondence of the 



26 THE BIBLE 



spiritual laws, and so of the probability 
of their common origin. 

Which one of these classes will be the 
safest teacher, each one must decide for 
himself The time, however, has now 
forever passed, when there is a possibility 
of any antagonism between the works 
and words of God, or His physical and 
spiritual laws. 

Moreover, it is not probable that there 
is any way by which God could have re- 
vealed Himself to man, that there would 
not be some who would doubt, or reject 
it. Because there is no doctrine of reve- 
lation, or law of matter, that has not been 
so treated, as has been also the existence 
of God who gave the revelations. 

It is unbelief in God, or His laws, 
which makes speculative scientists. They 
are bewildered by looking only on the 
dark side of His revelations. If anyone 
will believe only what he can understand 
and demonstrate, he will travel on a nar- 
row path, and never be of much use to 
God, or man, or science, or religion. 

For skepticism is what Carlyle calls 



A SCIENTIFIC RE VELA TION. 



27 



^' the prurience of self-conceit." Such 
thinkers and reasoners are soon stranded 
on the quick-sands of materialism ; God 
does not reveal Himself to such men. 



28 THE BIBLE 



CHAPTER III. 

THE FIRST DA Y' S CREA TIVE WORK. 

Time Began. — Creation a Miracle. — The Earth an Eminent 
part of Creation. — Bible Science. — The Laws of Matter. — 
Creation Sudden and Recent. — Light. — Day and Night. — 
Creation Unfinished. 

*'/« the beginning GOD created the heaven and the earth,'* 

THIS was the beginning of time. It 
declares a Personal God their Crea- 
tor. It means that before that there was 
no such matter and forces as exist in the 
heaven and the earth. 

God was there alone and created them 
suddenly by His WILL. It was a mir- 
acle. The matter, gases, and forces 
were created with laws inherent in them. 
Those laws were to cause further organ- 
ization. And the knowledge of the laws, 
so far as they come within man's obser- 
vation, constitute physical science. 

That was God's primary revelation of 
His power and wisdom, to make Himself 



A SCIENTIFIC REVELATION, 



29 



known to the intelligent beings He had 
created, and to man whom He was about 
to create. The beginning, though mi- 
raculous, had in it the laws of all the 
sciences. They are now the objects of 
scientific investioration. 

The Bible being a later revelation to 
man, after he was created, begins by 
informing him of the origin of creation, 
and of himself, and of all things. Then 
follow other laws for his moral, physical, 
and spiritual well-being. And there is a 
visible and mysterious relation between 
those laws, which proves that one Law- 
giver enacted both of them. 

The Hebrew word to create has but 
the one meaning, of bringing into exist- 
ence something that did not before exist. 
Or else to separate and divide, which the 
laws of matter show was part of the first 
day's work. It occurs but three times in 
the narrative. I. In the primary work of 
creation. II. When the vegetable and 
animal life were created. And III. When 
God breathed into man His immortal 
spiritual life. 



so 



THE BIBLE 



These are the bases of all the physical 
and spiritual laws relating to man. God 
then came out of His eternal spiritual 
kingdom. He appeared on the outer 
circle of the infinite, to begin the finite 
creation and time. Man cannot imagine 
what existed before, nor anything beyond 
what God has revealed. 

The Old and New Testament declare 
that the Heavens and Earth were made 
in the beginning by the Word of God. 
They mean the ponderable and imponder- 
able elements of the created cosmos. The 
gases, and forces, and elementary min- 
erals and metals were then prepared. 
Because later, when the earth was sepa- 
rated from the original chaos, God so 
called the dry land, and the water seas. 

One thing is remarkable, that the earth 
is mentioned in the primary work, but 
neither the sun, nor the moon, nor the 
stars. There is an eminence foreshad- 
owed for the earth. It was named before 
all other worlds while in the original 
magma. Subsequent acts show that it 
was intended to hold a unique place in 



A SCIENTIFIC RE VELA TION. 



31 



creation. It was to support animal and 
vegetable life, and become in its elements 
a partaker, first of the life of man, and 
then of God. 

Whatever scientists may assert to the 
contrary, the nature, order and relations 
of the spiritual world, revealed in the 
Bible, constitute a branch of science as 
positive as the nature, and order, and 
relations of the physical laws revealed in 
Creation. Both have positive relations to 
another life, and other worlds, of which 
the Scriptures alone give us any knowl- 
edge. There mankind are destined to 
eternally live, when their present life is 
ended. 

The Word of God, therefore, has its 
internal evidence, that it was given to 
teach man science as well as religion. 
And as the instinct to know both revela- 
tions, and some laws of both are in man, 
it is vain to attempt to interpret the laws 
without the help they mutually furnish. 

That creation, which began by a mira- 
cle, had the elements, forces, and laws 
now existing in its first stage is apparent 



;^2 THE BIBLE 



from the next creative work. It was 
preparation for another miracle based 
on it. 

** The Earth was without form, and 
void ; and darkness was upon the face of 
the deep ; and the Spirit of God moved 
upon the face of the waters.*' 

That proves that the elementary forces 
and matter were ready for a new creative 
act, which immediately followed. Water 
was created by the original act. That 
proves that the gases also were then 
created, for they exist everywhere in the 
visible universe. 

Experiments prove that oxygen and 
hydrogen, burned in proportions to pro- 
duce water, cause intense heat. Hence 
chemical action then had produced organ- 
ization. The gases form manifold combi- 
nations with minerals and metals, as well 
as form water and air. 

We see the wisdom of the work thus 
far, because they were also essential for 
forming the plants and animals which were 
soon to be created. This reveals the sci- 
entific character of creation in its primary 



A SCIENTIFIC RE VELA TION, 33 



Stages. God has not told how He 
worked. The laws were there for man to 
study. But in later parts of His work 
He gives some details, relating to the 
earth and all things on it. And the 
names God gives are the beginnings of 
science. 

Heaven and the earth are names oriven 

o 

by God to the two grand divisions of cre- 
ation. They were the miraculous part of 
it. Yet they are the terms, or bases, on 
which the science of astronomy and geol- 
ogy are founded. They have grown up 
out of these germinal words. 

From the latest scientific investigations 
it is evident that the elements and forces 
of nature were simultaneously created. 
There research comes to the unknowable. 
That is testimony to the Mosaic account, 
that the beginning was miraculous. 

Experiments on molecular construction 
prove that manifold substances, formerly 
supposed elementary, are now known to 
be chemical compounds. This is one of 
the best evidences ot the truth of the 
Mosaic narrative. That under Gon's 



34 



THE BIBLE 



direction, chemical action produced the 
organization of the materials of the uni- 
verse. For it applies to all the members 
of our solar system, and others so far as 
the spectroscope has revealed their nature. 
This being so, the creation and com- 
pounding of the elements must have been 
sudden and simultaneous. 

It is not therefore probable, as some 
scientists and theologians teach, that there 
was a vast interval between the creation 
of matter and force, and its organization 
into worlds and systems ; a time said to 
be beyond all calculation. Therefore ''the 
latitude of millions of years" must be 
assigned to the six days' work. 

When all the general preparations were 
ready, '' God said, Let there be light : and 
there was light." Light results from 
motion. There were two forces present 
to produce it. The will of God calling 
it, and the physical force obeying Him. 
Baruch said, '' God sendeth forth the 
light and it goeth." 

That was the ''cosmic light," probably 
magnetic light, which instantly pervaded 



A SCIENTIFIC RE VELA TION. 



35 



the chaotic mass, filled space, and carried 
creation to its organization into worlds 
and systems. 

'' And God saw the light, that it was 
good ; and God divided the light from 
the darkness." 

The Scriptures use the same word for 
light and electricity. And experiments 
prove that heat, light and electricity are 
convertible. Under God's direction that 
force divided the light from the darkness 
in the great deep. Matter and force were 
whirled into worlds and systems, and 
extended in space, where they have ever 
since been. 

By that force all the created matter was 
magnetized, as it has ever since contin- 
ued to be. It was divided into globes 
and systems, as they have ever since 
retained their relations. But the record 
does not say that they were then finished. 
They had only taken their place in the 
heavens. They then began to move in 
their orbits, and revolve on their axes, 
yet they waited for another creative act 
to perfect them. 



36 THE BIBLE 



Science confirms the revelation, that 
there would be no motion in the primi- 
tive matter without light and heat. That 
light was a creative force. Sunlight was 
afterwards created as a productive force. 
The former filled all space between the 
worlds. 

Isaiah says, God created the darkness 
as well as the light. It was not the 
absence of sunlight, because that was not 
created. But God divided it from the 
darkness. From the results produced it 
looks as if they were the positive and 
negative forces of electricity, or the two 
greater mysteries of creation, attraction 
and repulsion. 

Job says, when God laid the foundations 
of the earth, he made ''thick darkness a 
swaddling band for it." This looks as if 
it were as much a creation as light. 

*' And God called the light day and the 
darkness He called night ; and the even- 
ing and the morning were the first day." 

It is to be noticed that, dividing the 
light from the darkness, is not making a 
day and a night. But the darkness of 



A SCIENTIFIC RE VEIA TIOA\ 3 7 



the night and the light of the day made 
the first day. That was evidently said 
with reference to what would be a 
natural day when the sunlight was cre- 
ated. Only it was on one such day so 
much of creation was so far completed. 
The context warrants this interpreta- 
tion. It could have been done by God 
as easily in one such day as in a thousand 
years. 

Moreover, it is impossible to imagine 
how the worlds and systems could have 
been framed together, and held together 
as they now are by their reciprocal laws, 
in any other way than simultaneously. 

From this revelation, it looks as if God 
first created the elementary matter and 
forces, with inherent laws to accomplish 
future purposes. Then He created light, 
the cosmic force, which, under the direc- 
tion of His will, separated from the 
darkness, and imparted general laws to 
the created mass. That caused its divi- 
sion into worlds and systems, arranged 
them in their plains, and caused them to 
move in their orbits, and revolve on their 



38 THE BIBLE 



axes. But creation was in a dim crepus- 
cule, having only its cosmic light. And 
the first day's work was finished. 

Moreover, there are conditions now ex- 
isting in creation which confirm the rev- 
elation. Some of the worlds are gaseous 
globes, and a galaxy of nebulous matter 
yet remains. The sun and some of the 
planets are in their primitive state. The 
comets come and go, and return after 
centuries, but continue attenuated as they 
were created. 

Then the systems are framed together, 
and governed by the two great laws of 
attraction and repulsion, as if they were 
simultaneously united. St. Paul says, 
''the worlds were framed by the Word of 
God, so that things which are seen were 
not made of things who do appear." 

That beginning was the advent of time, 
as will be more clearly shown further on. 
The record in the margin reads B.C. 4004. 
That date is confirmed by later revela- 
tions from God. So, also, is the term of 
the day positively defined. And the 
Hebrew chronology preserved in another 



A SCIENTIFIC REVELATION. 



39 



line confirms it, though differing with it 
a few centuries. And there is no fact in 
astronomy, geology, or chemistry, and no 
physical law rightly interpreted that con- 
flicts with the Mosaic records. The 
earth's revolution defined the day when 
the work had further progressed. 

The present condition of the physical 
cosmos shows that it is not yet finished. 
The reason will appear, when, further on^ 
there will be the manifestation of further 
revelations from God, showing His ulti- 
mate design in creation. 



40 THE BIBLE 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE SECOND DA Y' S CREA TIVE WORK. 

The Firmament Created. — Mechanical Agency. — The 
Atmosphere. — The Completion of the Second Day's Work. 

AS the work of creation was carried on, 
. it shows a scientific accuracy. Thus 
far no act had been done that seemed to 
look forward beyond anything but matter 
and force, and their laws. Nothing done 
to make them the medium of any higher 
organization or life. Nothing that would 
more effectually divide the cosmic light 
and darkness, and make the natural day 
and night more apparent. 

There was no light in the sun, moon, 
or stars ; no atmosphere around the 
earth, without which day and night were 
not possible. Everything that is to fol- 
low has special reference to the earth, or 
to things pertaining to it, to complete it 
for the reception and support of vegeta- 
ble and animal life, and the introduction 



A SCIENTIFIC RE VELA TION. 



41 



of man to exercise his dominion over it. 

** And God said, Let there be a firma- 
ment in the midst of the waters, and let 
it divide the waters from the waters. 
And God made the firmament, and divided 
the waters which were under the firma- 
ment from the waters which were above 
the firmament ; and it was so. And God 
called the firmament heaven ; and the 
evening and the morning were the second 
day.^' 

There have been many interpretations 
of the Hebrew word firmament. It means 
an expanse stretched out. It may include 
space ; but so far as the earth is con- 
cerned, and the revelation is now confined 
to that, it includes the atmosphere sur- 
rounding it. 

The prophet Ezekiel represents the 
throne of God, and the glory of the Lord 
as above the firmament. It looks as if 
it were a modification of the ether filling 
the space between the worlds ; and, so 
far as the earth is concerned, making it a 
medium for the transmission of sunlight 
when it was created. 



42 THE BIBLE 



The dividing of the waters under the 
firmament from the waters above was 
strictly limited to the earth's waters and 
atmosphere. It was a provision for the 
perpetual circulation of the air, or wind 
and water. It was also a means for divid- 
ing between sunlight when created and 
darkness ; because without the atmos- 
phere there would be no way for the wind 
and water courses, that God made, and 
Job with scientific accuracy describes. 

Job says, God '* made the weight for 
the winds ; and He weigheth the waters 
by measure, when He made a decree for 
the rain, and a way for the lightning of 
the thunder.*' And again, He ''hath divi- 
ded a water course for the overflowing of 
waters." Both statements are strictly sci- 
entific, according to the most recent dis- 
coveries of the circuits of the currents of 
the oceans and the winds, from the equa- 
tor to the poles. 

There was another miraculous manifes- 
tation of Divine wisdom preparatory to 
the work which was to follow, to adapt 
the earth to the creations that were to 



A SCIENTIFIC RE VELA TION. 



43 



follow. It was a revelation of physical 
laws capable of verification by man, after 
they had lain in shadow nearly six thou- 
sand years. 

The creation of the firmament must 
have been sudden, from its nature, and 
from the laws which were to operate 
within it. It was the beginning of the 
second day's work. The atmosphere was 
to receive and discharge the water daily 
ascending in vapor, and returning in rain ; 
and to furnish a medium for the circula- 
tion of the air, and the winds' courses. 

Up to that creative act all had been 
done by the will of God, either by mira- 
cle or by the action of chemical laws He 
created. But in forming the air a new 
force was used. The chemical agency 
gave place to the mechanical. There is 
scarcely anything in nature more wonder- 
ful than the construction of the atmos- 
phere. No other part of creation shows 
more admirable adaptation to the pur- 
poses for which it was formed. 

The air being composed of oxygen and 
nitrogen mechanically mixed, admits of 



44 THE BIBLE 



carbonic acid and other gases, and vapor, 
and manifold other substances essential in 
the economy of the vegetable and animal 
life on the earth. The firmament holds 
it in union in such a way that its elements 
are elastic, and admit of the interchanges 
ever going on in it, so as to preserve the 
purity of both the air and the water. 

All that would not have been possible 
had the gases forming the air been chem- 
ically combined, as they are in the water. 
Neither could it have maintained the 
equilibrium, between the oxygen and 
nitrogen, carbonic acid, and other gases, 
so as to adapt them to the life of the 
plants and animals that were about to be 
created. Nor would it be a medium for 
the sunlight, when it was created, to soften 
it before it reached the earth, and serve 
its purposes in the economy of the life 
and growth of plants, and animals, and 
man. 

The firmamental atmosphere is about 
forty miles high. At the highest moun- 
tain top it has always the same amount of 
gases, and their proportions are best fitted 



A SCIENTIFIC RE VELA TION. 



45 



for the respiration of plants and animals, 
and to increase vegetable and animal 
growth. 

The air being the principle that sup- 
ports life, had to be created before the^ 
plants and animals. That is another* 
proof of the consecutiveness of creation, 
and of God's wisdom in preparing all 
things for bringing the earth into its pres- 
ent condition, which was immediately to 
be done. 

Experiments prove that vegetation is 
the only source of oxygen, so far as man 
can discover. No seed will grow without 
it, no animal life can exist in its absence. 
The plants daily absorb carbonic acid, 
and the air decomposes it, and they emit 
oxygen, and retain the carbon for their 
growth. 

Oxygen not only supports life, but also 
the combustion that produces flame. So 
that the quantity in the air would be so 
reduced that it would not support life 
unless some provision had been made for 
its supply. 

The consumption of fuel by burning 



46 THE BIBLE 



absorbs oxygen from the air and furnishes 
carbonic acid. That again is decomposed 
by vegetables, the carbon being converted 
into wood. The oxygen replenishes the 
loss created by the burning. Thus God's 
works go on in perpetual motion, accord- 
ing to His will and His laws. The air is 
purified, and the circulation of the waters 
above and below the firmament are kept 
in perpetual motion. 

Thus ended the evening and morning 
of the second day's progressive work ; 
and all having especial reference to that 
which was to immediately follow. 

All that God did was miraculous. All 
the preparations He made, for the next 
day's work, were scientific, inasmuch as 
the created laws and the way the matter 
and forces were organized, are what men 
call science. 

Although that day's work seems to be 
small in comparison with the mightier 
operations of the first day; yet it admir- 
ably corresponds both in its magnitude 
and wisdom. It was no less essential for 
the progressive work. There are visible 



A SCIENTIFIC RE VELA TION. 



47 



the same Divine power and wisdom in 
preparing for the next creative act, and it 
was really no less stupendous. 

One thing more is to be noticed. Thus 
far God gave the names to everything He 
.created. ''The heaven and the earth; 
darkness, water and light, the day and 
the night, the light and the firmament.'' 
All these names have ever since been 
retained and used by mankind. 

Thus far the work is a model of Divine 
simplicity, conciseness and sublimity. It 
accords perfectly with the written account 
of it. There is no revelation of who or 
what God is ; or of the way He had 
carried on His works. It was miraculous, 
and we could not have understood it. It 
would have been of no advantage to us if 
we could ; but on the contrary, would have 
dulled both curiosity and imagination. 

But as the work progressed, there is 
much that comes within reach of our in- 
vestigation ; and that is so revealed as 
to exercise our intellects, and make 
known God's wisdom and goodness ; 
so as to inspire reverence and love, and 



48 THE BIBLE 






obedience to the laws He intended to 
enact for man's conduct. 

There is no revelation of anything pre- 
existing before Creation. Nothing said 
of its future condition, or how long it will 
exist, or if it ever will come to an end. * 
It was because there were to be other 
revelations. Man was to be gradually 
educated to understand the physical and 
spiritual laws to be revealed by prophecy 
and history. There was also to be an- 
other revelation from God, which was 
not at first mentioned 



A SCIENTIFIC RE VELA TION, 



49 



CHAPTER V. 

THE THIRD DAY'S CREATIVE WORK. 

The Earth Fitted for Plants and Animals. — God named 
the Land, and Water, and the Sea. — The Vegetable Kingdom 
Formed. — Geology Confirms it. — No Development in the 
Vegetable World. 

ALL things being ready for a new exer- 
. cise of God's power and skill, for 
making the earth fitted to accompHsh 
His designs, and to become the abode of 
plants and animals: 

'* And God said, Let the waters under 
the heaven be gathered together unto 
one place, and let the dry land appear : 
and it was so/' 

That specifying the waters under the 
heaven, confirms the former statement: 
that there were then waters above the 
heaven. It was a movement on the face 
of the earth. That was a miracle. The 
Psalmist says of it, *' God stretched out 
the earth above the waters." Again he 



50 THE BIBLE 



says, ''God hath founded the earth on 
her bases." Such would have been the 
operation of the work, and so it is de- 
scribed. 

" And God called the dry land earth ; 
and the gathering together of the waters 
called He seas ; and God saw that it was 
good." 

The gathering together of the waters 
caused the great equatorial currents, as 
described by Job, and as they now flow 
round the globe in perpetual courses 
from the equator to the poles. They 
began then, as they have ever since done, 
to distribute the cold or warm water, and 
equalize the temperature of the water and 
the air. They have ever since made the 
earth sustain the vegetable and animal 
life then to be created. 

Thus far the creative work has gone 
on consecutively, and, so far as physical 
laws were co-related, scientifically. Each 
act was a preparation for the following 
one ; and according to laws which have 
ever since been in operation. Geology 
confirms the record. 



A SCIENTIFIC REVELATION. 



51 



There was originally but one great 
island created. It was washed on all 
sides by one surrounding ocean. How 
consistent the revelation is ! On that 
continental island there was but one 
river, flowing from its centre, and divid- 
ing into four other tributaries, taking its 
waters to the surrounding ocean. 

Then, as geologists agree, Europe, 
Africa, and America were originally under 
water, when animal and vegetable life 
first appeared on the globe. The water 
first received the lowest and most short- 
lived plants and animals. Their remains 
helped to form the sedimentary and fos- 
siliferous rocks, limestones, marls, chalk, 
sand stones, coral reefs and rag, and 
clays, that were first deposited on the 
primary crystalline foundations of the 
earth. They helped to make the bases 
of the mountains and continents now 
existing. They prepared them for up- 
heaval, when in the economy of God's 
plan they would be needed. 

These provisions being made for the 
progressive work, '' God said. Let the 



52 THE BIBLE 



earth bring forth grass (or tender plants) 
the herb yielding seed, and the fruit 
tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose 
seed is in itself upon the earth : and 
it was so." This is the positive declaration 
of a fact, which is so now, and it is scien- 
tific. And here again geology confirms 
the revelation, that '' the earth brought 
forth grass, and herb yielding seed after 
his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, 
whose seed was in itself, after his kind : 
and God saw that it was good/' That 
is, competent to accomplish all the 
future purposes, He proposed in creating 
them. 

And geology proves that the second- 
ary rocks contain millions of the remains 
of cryptogamous marine plants and pro- 
tozoa. Their remains have been found 
in the neighboring crystalline rocks, and 
so prove that they were once sediment. 
Thus, step by step, is the research of 
man confirming the Word of God, and 
increasing our faith in the spiritual reve- 
lations, which concern our present and 
future eternal happiness. 



A SCIENTIFIC REVELATION. 



53 



Geology utterly refutes the develop- 
ment theory, and that any plant or living 
creature was created in any other way 
than each one after its kind. Because, 
so far as the oldest marine plants, pro- 
tozoa, and the next highest kinds of 
marine animals are concerned, those 
found in the oldest formations are the 
shortest lived, and would first become 
fossil. Their descendants are yet living 
in our seas and oceans, and have main- 
tained their kind so distinctively, that 
there is no material difference between 
the living and the dead, except such as 
death and time have caused. The living, 
after six thousand years, continue to re- 
produce their several kinds ; though some 
kinds, that have done their work, have 
become extinct. 

Many others have died out in all past 
ages, as some are now disappearing. 
Thus the living, and the dying, and the 
dead, witness to the truth of the Scripture 
revelation. For if any plant, or seed, or 
living creature had gradually passed, in 
a long interval of millions of years, to 



54 THE BIBLE 



another kind, thousands of their remains 
would be found in all their possible trans- 
formations in a fossil state. 

Millions of specimens are found; but 
not one passing through a change, except 
such as occur in the growth of its own 
kind. For example, the change of the 
tadpole to the frog. Each one is after 
its own kind, in its normal state. And 
that is universal, through successive 
changes of sea and land, from their first 
appearance to those now living. 

Moreover, that repetition by God, after 
He said '' Let the* earth bring forth," 
'* And the earth brought forth," as if sud- 
denly. It looks as if He, foreseeing man's 
pride, unbelief and self-sufificiency, thou- 
sands of years after his creation, repeated 
His words concerning this day's work. 
In order to impress the fact of the im- 
mutability of His laws in the kinds of life 
He created, as well as the seeds and the 
plants. 

And here it is again remarkable that 
two causes are mentioned as productive 
in the progressive work : First, God's 



A SCIENTIFIC REVELATION. 



55 



creative power ; and second, the inherent 
law implanted in the seed, in grass, and 
herbs, and all kinds of plants and trees to 
reproduce others like themselves, each 
one after its kind. There is also another 
peculiar feature of this day's work, for on 
its completion, God first said that He 
*' saw that it was good." 

Though it may be vain to speculate, 
as to why He so said, because He has not 
revealed it ; yet His work is a revelation 
designed to excite our curiosity and to 
exercise our reason. And we perceive 
that the creation of the vegetable king- 
dom, with its tens of thousands of kinds 
of vegetable life, and forms of plants, 
trees and seeds, fruits, flowers, and fra- 
grance, with the power of growth to re- 
produce their kinds unchangeably, and to 
save all from future destruction, was a 
higher manifestation of God's wisdom. 
So also was their adaptation to man's 
wants and enjoyments, a more benevolent 
act and not less wonderful, than the two 
preceding days' works. It was good be- 
cause of its useful adaptations to the next 



56 THE BIBLE 



day's work, that was consecutively to 
follow it. 

No plant has ever changed, except such 
temporary changes as are now in process. 
The variations never tend towards pro- 
ducing another kind of plant, or tree, or 
flower, or fruit. 

A flowering shrub grafted on another 
of its own group, or a tree graft that will 
take on no other but its own kind, does 
not change the stock. Variations often 
occur in the color of the leaves or petals. 
A variegated single althea grafted on 
a double white one does not affect its 
color, or double its petals, but blotches 
occur in the leaves. Hybrid plants can- 
not be engrafted. 

No graft can be made to produce leaf, 
flower, or fruit, except after its own kind. 
Millions of grafts have been tried without 
any change in their individuality, or in the 
stock they were grafted on. 

This proves Mr. Darwin's *' bud-vari- 
ation '' theory untrue. There is no such 
variation possible, but slight variations 
often occur as freaks of nature. They are 



A SCIENTIFIC RE VELA TION, 



57 



not transmissible after their kind. The 
creation of the laws was miraculous, by 
the will of God. Their operation is par- 
tially miraculous. Who can tell why the 
dark earth produces some white, red, or 
yellow roses ? or why heat and moisture 
make seed germinate? 

''Those who take Mr. Darwin as an 
authority on these practical subjects, need 
not hesitate to accept the noted Baron 
Munchausen as an authority upon the art 
of growing cherry trees from seed shot 
into the backs of deer." So said H. S. in 
a late number of the New York Times. 



58 THE BIBLE 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE FOURTH DA Y' S CREA TIVE WORK. 

The Divine order of Creation. — Light for the Sun and 
Earth. — A Creative Day. — Sun and Moon Light-bearers. — 
The Earth unique. — Solar System in motion. — The Sun. — 
Christ in Creation. — Creation's End. 

IN the beginning of this day's work, 
there is an order and connection and 
fitness ; it is plainly seen to be a consec- 
utive operation to that which was done 
the preceding day; because when the 
former day's work ended, there was no 
sunlight to sustain the life of the vegetable 
world in the water, or on the land, or 
promote its growth. All would have soon 
perished had not provision for it imme- 
diately been made. 

And so the first act, on the fourth day, 
was, '* And God said, Let there be lights 
in the firmament of the heaven, to divide 
the day from the night; and let them be 
for signs, and for seasons, and for days, 



A SCIENTIFIC RE VELA TION. 



59 



and years. And let them be for lights 
in the firmament of the heaven to give 
light upon the earth ; and it was so.'' 
God spake and it was done, and it accords 
with other later revelations, that all things 
were made by His Word. '* God called 
the light, and it came trembling." 

As the creative work goes on, God's 
plan and purposes become more and more 
apparent, and we see their fitness only 
when we consider what was afterwards 
revealed : That man was to be here cre- 
ated in God's image and likeness ; that all 
things here were to be placed under his 
dominion, and in his nature God would 
one day be incarnate, and for a time live 
here. God was preparing the earth for 
Himself, as well as the things and 
creatures He was creating. 

And as the revelation, concerning this 
day's work, proceeds, the intention of the 
illumination of the sun and its planets, 
with reference to the earth, is repeated, to 
more emphatically express the fact and 
God's design. 

''And God made two great lights ; the 



6o THE BIBLE 



greater light to rule the day and the lesser 
light to rule the night; and He made the 
stars also." That is, made them at that 
time to be light-bearers. ''And God set 
them in the firmament of the heaven to 
give light upon the earth, and to rule over 
the day, and over the night, and to divide 
the light from the darkness ; and God saw 
that it was good." 

The creation of this new kind of light 
was another miraculous and scientific act, 
almost as sublime as any done on the 
preceding days. Because the sun, and 
moon, and stars, already arranged in their 
places by the primary light, were made to 
suddenly shine and to give light upon the 
earth, by another kind of light. 

It may be thought that this world is too 
insignificant to have sun, moon, and stars 
to shine for it ; but if God lighted it for 
His residence, and He is '' King" here, and 
it shows His glory, then it is reasonable 
that He should have made the magnifi- 
cent display of solar and planetary light, 
which every night ** declare the glory of 
God, and show His handiwork." 



A SCIENTIFIC RE VELA TION. 6 I 



And the light was no thousands of years 
in traversing space. But on this day, 
when God made sun, moon, and stars to 
shine on the earth, they shone simulta- 
neously with the command. Science 
teaches that such must have been the 
case, in order to accomplish its purposes 
in the economy of creation, and the solar 
system. No sun, or moon, or stars began 
to shine one after another, but all became 
instantly effulgent, as they have ever since 
continued to be. 

Now, there are several indications of 
the Divine accuracy of this revelation ; it 
does not say that the sun, moon, or stars 
were then created, but '' God said, Let 
there be lights in the firmament," and 
*' God made two great lights." There is 
scientific truth in that, because it discrim- 
inates between the primary electro- 
magnetic light, and this secondary solar 
and lunar, and star light. The sun and 
moon are called '' light-bearers," to distin- 
guish their light from the primary light. 
And the sun and planets could not have 
fulfilled God's command, unless He had 



62 THE BIBLE 



beforehand prepared them, and the earth's 
atmosphere, and the primary luminous 
ether, for their light to pass through, be- 
fore it reached the earth. 

God created that light ; the sun was not 
the producer of it, but only its '' bearer ;" 
and this best accords with what scientific 
observation has discovered concerninor it. 
What followed is established scientific 
law. For it was not the primary light 
which is said to have inaugurated time, 
and caused its division into periods and 
seasons ; but the secondary light did, 
and made visible the distinction between 
day and night, and defined the meaning 
of the creative day. Nothing is said of 
weeks, and months, because the revolu- 
tions of the moon would teach that, as 
the earth's revolutions did days, and years, 
and seasons. 

There was no such measurement as 
time before creation. Its beginning was 
the beginning of time. Because time is 
a reckoning depending on the motions o/ 
the planets. Man could have devised no 
such divisions, unless God had arranged 



A SCIENTIFIC RE VELA TION. 63 



them. We could no more understand its 
meaning, if all were one eternal now of 
unchangeable light, than we can under- 
stand eternity or imagine how eternity 
began. Our thoughts cannot penetrate 
beyond what God has revealed. We 
could never have imagined how creation 
began had not God graciously revealed it, 
to gratify our natural curiosity and desire 
to know it. 

But for the creation of sunlight, the 
earth would not have been in a condition 
for the next wonderful creative act that 
followed. 

There are many laws which confirm the 
Mosaic account of the sun's creation, in 
the way it is there represented, and 
also render it certain that it could not 
have been many centuries ago. It repre- 
sents the creation of sunlight on the 
fourth day after the sun was created. 
It declares it was illuminated with 
special reference to the earth, '' to give 
light upon the earth.'' No other planet 
is mentioned. And science teaches that 
there is no other planet, unless possibly 



6 4 THE BIBLE 



Venus, where the sunlight would be 
adapted to its condition ; as it is to the 
condition of things on the earth, to things 
then created, and immediately after to be 
created. 

For while sunlight pervades the solar 
system, its essential function is to sustain 
and increase vegetable and animal organ- 
ization and life, as they exist on the earth. 
And they are such as we have good rea- 
sons to believe exist nowhere else in 
creation. This being so, it is a witness 
for the truth of the Scripture narrative, 
and of its scientific character. 

Moreover, the Psalmist gave a formula 
of the sun's motion, three thousand years 
ago, which modern astronomers have 
recently verified. He said *'GoD hath 
set a tabernacle for the sun '' in the 
heavens, and that '* his going forth is 
from the end of heaven and his circuit 
unto the ends of it, and nothing is hid 
from the heat thereof.'' Again he said, 
'' God hath prepared a light for the 
sun," as if it were not luminous when 
created, and was not itself a producer of 



A SCIENTIFIC REVELATION. 65 

light, but a bearer of it as it was prepared 
to be. 

The first proof of that is, that recent 
discoveries, made by aid of the spectro- 
scope, prove that creation is homogene- 
ous, and that the elementary matter of the 
sun is the same as that which pervades the 
solar system. The same gases, and indi- 
cations of metallic vapors, and various 
minerals and other substances exist there; 
so it is probable that the sun w^as created 
and illuminated as the revelation says. 

The modern discovery of the correla- 
tion of forces, and of the conservation of 
energy in nature, and the development of 
spectroscopic analogy, have helped us to 
trace to their sources several kinds of 
energy, which are present in terrestrial 
phenomena caused by the solar rays and 
prove that the sudden extinction of the 
sun would destroy every living thing and 
creature on the earth. And this so far 
confirms the declaration that God created 
the light for the earth, and its inhabitants. 
For there is no other planet exactly in 
the same condition as the earth ; and 



66 THE BIBLE 



the sun had to be created before the 
vegetable and animal kingdoms could 
exist. 

Man has learned a great deal about the 
sun — that it is distant from the earth 
ninety-three millions of miles, that it has 
a diameter of eight hundred and sixty- 
five thousand miles, and has three hun- 
dred and thirty thousand times more 
matter than the earth, and is one-fourth 
less in density ; that it takes about 
twenty-five days to revolve on its axis. 

The sun's visible surface is called its 
photosphere, and a luminous stratum of 
pinkish gaseous matter around that is 
the chromosphere ; and that sends out 
masses of cloud-like fiame, called prom- 
inences or protuberances, composed 
chiefly of hydrogen gas. Outside of the 
chromosphere is the corona — a fainter 
light, often extending millions of miles. 
It is a gas of great tenuity and of un- 
known nature, but supposed to form the 
sun's atmosphere. Thus we see that the 
physical revelation has mysteries similar 
to the written one. 



A SCIENTIFIC RE VELA TION. 6 7 



Because, with all our knowledge of the 
sun, thus far acquired, there is as much 
mystery about it as there is in the written 
revelation ; and scientists are as much in 
the dark as to these mysteries as theolo- 
gians are as to the spiritual laws yet 
lying in shadow, but proving both reve- 
lations are after a common plan. 

Astronomers are yet disputing as to 
the nature of the outflow of solar light, 
and of its heat. Some hold that it is 
from combustion of some kind of fuel ; 
but neither anything in creation, nor in 
the nature of light, establishes it. If it 
were so, the sun would be a great ball of 
fire, seven or eight times hotter than any 
furnace-heat man can make. And it 
would melt an ice-shell, ten inches thick 
over its whole surface, every second ; 
and, if it were solid anthracite coal, would 
burn up in six thousand years ; and its 
heat would diminish, and its bulk con- 
sume, century after century — which is not 
the case. 

If the burning were kept up by mete- 
ors, or any other inflowing matter, and 



68 THE BIBLE 



the sun were millions of years old, as 
some conjecture, it would long ago have 
consumed all the matter visible in the 
universe, and have been extinguished. 
Even the planets of our solar system 
would furnish it fuel for only about forty- 
six thousand years ; and the hypothesis 
of heat from the contraction of the sun's 
diameter, and the liquefaction and solidi- 
fication of the gaseous mass, has difficul- 
ties greater than the former theory. 

Moreover, there is constantly, in the 
sun's apparent flames, great clouds of 
hydrogen ; and though under some cir- 
cumstances it is inflammable, it does not 
support combustion^ which is against the 
theory. But when hydrogen is mixed 
with oxygen and inflamed, it detonates 
violently, and this may account for some 
of the immense protuberances in the 
sun by chemical laws. But God shows 
no other work of creation done in that 
bungling way ! 

But the greater objection to the com- 
bustion theory is, that it is not only un- 
scientific, but is also opposed to the 



A SCIENTIFIC REVELATION. 69 

revealed account. That says the sun 
was created in the beginning, as part 
of the original elementary magma — the 
chaotic deep — and in that condition it 
was located in the solar system, and there 
is no mention of fire. 

But when God made the sun to be ''a 
light-bearer," it was illuminated not by 
fire. '• He made two great lights," and 
set them in the firmament '' to be for 
lights." And now it is not certain that 
sunlight causes heat unless it meets with 
resistance. Above the atmosphere the 
sun's rays have no heat ; the higher we 
ascend in the air, the colder it becomes, 
and space is intensely cold. We cannot 
tell whether the velocity of light is not 
greater before it reaches our atmosphere 
than it is within it, nor how much heat 
is acquired or absorbed in its passage 
through it. 

We know that air-light is but reflected 
sunshine ; that all the phenomena of the 
sun attributed to combustion may be, 
and most likely is, chemical or by dynamic 
magnetic force, and that sun-heat is not 



JO 



THE BIBLE 



the result of fire ; because chemistry 
proves that the sun may be the source of 
heat without being itself hot. And if so, 
it wastes neither light nor heat. 

It may be that its gigantic work is sim- 
ilar to the electrical phenomena, and the 
aurora-borealis in our atmosphere ; or like 
the clouds in our skies, which at sunrise 
and sunset often ''look like hills of fire 
which slowly burn themselves away." 

The eruptive prominences in the sun's 
chromosphere often ascend twenty or 
thirty thousand miles, with a velocity ex- 
ceeding a hundred miles a second, and 
prove that some other force than fire, 
probably electricity, is the cause of such 
operations. Certainly, it looks as if the 
sun were a highly magnetized body, and 
all that phenomena is electrical. So, while 
it causes only light in its own atmosphere, 
it may be the source of heat in all parts 
of its system. 

As experiments prove that all the waves 
of solar radiation are bearers of energy, 
and that it is only when they are inter- 
rupted that they cause heat, so is it 



A SCIENTIFIC REVELATION. 



71 



also probable that they are of chemico- 
electrical origin. 

Only one other remarkable incident 
remains to be noticed. That is. the cor- 
relation, intimated in the Scriptures, be- 
tween God's works of Creation and 
Redemption. In several ways the sun 
of our solar system is mentioned as a 
symbol of Christ. He is called the Sun 
of Righteousness. He is to the work of 
Redemption what the sun is to Creation 
— so far as the earth is concerned. 

As the sunlight pervades all creation, 
and furnishes the light and heat that sus- 
tain all the vegetable and animal life on 
earth, so does Christ, as the Sun of Right- 
eousness, furnish, through the medium of 
the Holy Spirit, all the spiritual life and 
light which fill His Church and the world. 

Jesus so represented Himself, saying, 
'' I am the Light of the world ;'' and St. 
John says, ** In Him was Life ; and the 
Life was the Light of men." He ''was the 
true Light which lighteth every man that 
cometh into the world." And Jesus 
pointed out these relations, which could 



72 THE BIBLE 



only have been so provided by God, and 
revealed by Him. Nor can any way be 
imagined, to better show that Creation 
and Redemption were both by and for 
Him. 

Christ, by His resurrection from the 
tomb, put the seal to His Divine nature, 
and to the truth of all He revealed. And 
by sending the Holy Spirit on earth, after 
His ascension to Heaven, He inaugurated 
a new dispensation, and new civilization, 
that have ever since been testifying that 
His life and righteousness have wrought 
these changes, and made Christendom the 
Light of the World. Also sending out 
its light in every direction, as the sun 
does through creation, to enlighten and 
regenerate the outlying nations. And 
now strike Christ from the work of 
Redemption, and all spiritual life would 
be extinguished ; and Christianity and 
Christian civilization would soon perish. 

And there is no reason to believe that 
the sun will diminish its light, or ever be- 
come extinct, in any other way than that 
foretold in the Bible as connected with 



73 



A SCIENTIFIC RE VELA TION, 

the work of Christ's Redemption. We 
have to look there for the way creation 
began, and from there alone do we learn 
how it will end. That will be seen from 
our Lord's and St. Peter's words, de- 
scribed in the last chapter, on Creation 
Finished. 

Now, as it is known that oxygen, which 
is one of the best supporters of combus- 
tion, constitutes a considerable portion of 
the materials that are in and around the 
earth and solar system, and that slight 
chemical changes would melt the elements, 
it shows that the whole course of crea- 
tion, as revealed in the Bible, corresponds 
with its present condition, and is scien- 
tific. And, so far as it is within reach of 
such investigation, confirms the Bible 
revelation that creation had a beginning 
and will have an end. 

The vegetable, fossil and living world 
testify that the sun's power has been the 
same in all past ages as it was the day it 
beean to shine. And St. Peter testifies 
that it will continue to be so until the 
Son of God exercises another miraculous 



74 THE BIBLE 



creative act upon it ; and there is no 
established scientific fact, or law, that 
refutes it. 



A SCIENTIFIC REVELATION. 



75 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE FIFTH DA V S CREA FIVE WORK. 

New Exercise of God's Power and Wisdom. — Marine 
Creatures Created. — Fossil Historians. — Each one After its 
Kind. — Geology Confirms Scripture. 

IT was as easy for God to do all that 
was done on each one of the preced- 
ing days, in a day of the revolution of 
the earth on its axis — as it was at last 
defined, as a day of light and a night of 
darkness — as it would have been to do it 
in a thousand years. And the former 
way was far more sublime and worthy of 
Almighty God, and of our admiration 
and adoration. 

The Psalmist said : '' A thousand years 
in Thy sight are but as yesterday when 
it is past, and as a watch in the night." 
And St. Peter said : '' One day is with 
the Lord as a thousand years, and a 
thousand years as one day." 



76 THE BIBLE 



As the creative days approach their 
end, God's work increases in manifesta- 
tions of His wisdom, and in details which 
come within reach of scientific analysis. 
Thus far, preparations had been made 
chiefly for organized vegetable forms ; 
their life was inclosed in them and in 
their seeds. 

But now, on this fifth day, a higher 
exercise of Divine power and skill was 
to be manifested, in the creation of mil- 
lions of forms, with wonderful functions 
and animal life, and powers of locomo- 
tion, and perfect adaptation to the water, 
air, and land that had been prepared for 
them ; and all that is represented as fol- 
lowing consecutively and connectedly, as 
parts of an increasing whole. And there 
is no perceptible or imaginable lack of 
unity, or harmony, or scientific relations 
in the work thus far. 

'* And God said. Let the waters bring 
forth abundantly the moving creature 
that hath life (soul-animal life), and fowl 
that may fly above the earth in the open 
firmament of heaven. And God created 



A SCIRyTIFIC RE VELA TION. J J 



great whales, and every living creature 
that moveth, which the waters brouorht 
forth abundantly, after their kind, and 
every winged fowl after his kind : and 
God saw that it was good. And God 
blessed them, saying, Be fruitful and 
multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, 
and let fowl multiply in the earth : and 
the evening and the morning were the 
fifth day/' 

God did not repeat what He said of the 
vegetable kingdom, that each kind had 
seed in itself to produce its own kind. 
There was no need to say so, because it 
was implied in the command to multiply 
and fill the waters and the earth. Ob- 
servation would soon teach it. The 
fossil historians began to write their own 
biography, with their remains, on stereo- 
typed plates from the beginning. And 
they have continued to write it ever since 
to our dav. 

Thus we know that marine animal life 
and vegetable forms were coeval with 
Creation ; because the oldest sandstones, 
and limestones, and chalk, and marls are 



78 THE BIBLE 



composed chiefly of the remains of the 
protozoa, or are filled with those of the 
next shortest lived marine vegetables or 
animals. 

From the beginning, the productive 
power of organized animal life reproduced 
its own kind. But the creative power of 
God made them so to do. The power to 
multiply was a second cause given by 
God to their animal life. It was to ena- 
ble each one to produce its own kind, to 
save the world from confusion of kinds 
and monsters. 

And it does not look as if God could 
have stated this truth in any other way, 
that would more forcibly confirm both 
the revealed account of Creation, and this 
testimony of the rocks, which has been 
neither interpolated nor effaced since the 
first record was made. Some of the de- 
scendants of the oldest created forms 
have not only continued to our day, but 
are working in the same way now, and 
make similar formations, and bear witness 
to the truth of the narrative. 

Though the original Creation of matter 



I 



A SCIENTIFIC REVELATION, 79 



and force was sudden, it is self-evident 
that the command to the living creatures 
to fill the seas and land, looked to a 
gradual increase of their forms ; and es- 
pecially, not by the development of new 
kinds, but by the expansion of those then 
created. 

Each one was to reproduce itself, ** after 
his kind;" and this is distinctly proven 
by the fact, that no living creature has 
ever begotten, or brought forth, any other 
kind but its own. This law has been ab- 
solute from the beginning. The law is 
now universal ; and the world's fossil his- 
tory testifies, that it has been universal, 
and maintained uninterruptedly from the 
first appearance of marine animal and 
vegetable life on the earth. 

Geology most positively confirms the 
Scriptural declaration, that marine living 
creatures were first in the order of crea- 
tion. Their remains fill, and even form, 
some of the oldest sedimentary rocks. 
And the Cambrian limestones, in the 
lower Silurian formation, wherever they 
have been examined in Europe and 



8o . THE BIBLE 



America, are vast storehouses of the or- 
ganic remains of encrinites, trilobites, 
corals and other kinds of shells and mar- 
ine animal life. They prove that they 
obeyed God's command, and began to 
'' fill the waters in the seas " as soon as 
they were created. 



\ 



A SCIENTIFIC REVELATION, 8 I 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE SIXTH DA Y' S CREATIVE IVORIT. 

Cattle, Creeping things and Beasts Created. — No ground 
for Evolution. — Testimony of the Chalk. — St. Paul. — Man 
named the Animals. 

" A ND God said. Let the earth bring 
l\ forth the living creature after his 
kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast 
of the earth after his kind : and it was so. 
And God made the beast of the earth 
after his kind, and cattle after their kind, 
and everything that creepeth upon the 
earth after his kind : and God saw that it 
was good.*' 

There is a profound meaning in the 
contrast of the sayings in these sentences. 
God commanded the earth to bring forth 
these living creatures. It is true that 
they came from the same elements as 
exist in the earth. Analysis of their 
bodies prove it. 



82 THE BIBLE 



Had the record been so left, it would 
have given some semblance of authority 
to the evolution theory. But that there 
should be no misconception as to how 
the earth produced them ; that it was 
not from any productive power in itself, 
no spontaneity of matter, of any mole- 
cule, or monera, but the will of God, it 
tells that they were created by God. 

It is also remarkable how those words 
** after their kind/' and ''after his kind," 
are reiterated, as if to give emphasis to 
the fact, and anticipating the future 
unbelief and hypotheses and speculations 
of men, who try to form a science of 
nature without God for its Creator. 

The statement is positive. It refutes 
the development theory ; and now after 
six thousand years, it is confirmed by the 
fact that the law is universal.^ 

All living creatures not only continue 
to reproduce themselves after their kind ; 
but after man's repeated efforts, he has 
been unable to make any changes. The 
remains of millions in a fossil state testify 
that the earliest deposited are after the 



A SCIIlNTIFIC REVELATION. 83 

same kinds, as also are their living 
descendants. 

That which was shown to be true, in a 
preceding chapter, of the unchangeable 
nature of plants and trees, is also true of 
the whole animal world. Manifold 
experiments have been made to cross 
animals and birds of different kinds, but 
all efforts to produce a new kind have 
failed. Improvements can be made by 
selecting choice individuals, but no 
change. 

The horse and the ass produce a hybrid 
mule. The mule is sterile; he cannot 
propagate his kind. God has fixed the 
limits to His laws of animal kind. It is 
as impossible for man to change one kind 
to another kind, as it is for him to create 
a new kind. 

An effort has been made to prop up the 
evolution theory, by the discovery of the 
remains of a little animal whose hoof 
resembles a horse's, as if he were the 
progenitor of all horses ; but the attempt 
is as absurd as it would be to prove that 
living monkeys are the descendants of 



84 THE BIBLE 



their progenitors who evolved into men. 
There has no single example ever been 
found, where one kind had begun to 
change to another kind. There would be 
millions, in every stage of transformation 
in the fossil world, had not all been 
chained to their destiny by that unvarying 
law of God, and the resistless power of 
reproduction. 

To give one instance of which there are 
many similar, S. C. Lyell said, hardly a 
generation ago, that the globigerinae that 
formed the chalk of England had been 
extinct for some millions of years. But 
the first time the Atlantic cable broke, 
when the end was hauled up, chalk 
eighteen inches thick had formed on it, 
and the operatives were alive and working. 

And now the descendants of many 
marine animals, once supposed to be long 
ago extinct, and whose remains helped to 
form some of the oldest fossiliferous rocks, 
as well as the kinds of vertebrate fish, such 
as first appeared in those formations, are 
yet living. 

St. Paul understood this positive law, 



A SCIENTIFIC REVELATION. 85 

and said, '* All flesh is not the same flesh; 
but there is one kind of flesh of men, 
another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, 
and another of birds." This is an author- 
ity against the theory of man's evolution 
from any lower animal. 

And that is not all. Now, after 
nineteen centuries, these qualities are 
unchanged ; but we know that the flesh 
of each has its own peculiar taste and 
smell, that separates it from all other kinds. 
God's word could hardly have any better 
confirmation of its truth, than these char- 
acteristics of their flesh. 

Another important fact in this day's 
work — not mentioned here, but found in 
the recapitulation of it — is that God 
gave the names to every thing He cre- 
ated to this time, and those names 
continue in scientific nomenclature ; but 
now it is said : 

*' The Lord God formed every beast of 
the field, and every fowl of the air, and 
brought them unto Adam to see what he 
would call them ; and whatsoever Adam 
called every living creature, that was the 



86 THE BIBLE 



name thereof. And Adam gave names to 
all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and 
to every beast of the field/' 

Those names have been continued to 
this day, as have also the names given by 
God. And another remarkable fact/ as 
will be seen in considering the last 
revelation respecting creation, is that 
when God introduced its Redeemer, He 
sent the arch-angel Gabriel to announc : 
the Name by which He would have Him 
called. This consistency in the revelation, 
four thousand years later, is a most 
remarkable incidental proof of its truth, 

After God pronounced this day's work 
good, it appears as if there were a break, 
or momentary pause in the consecutive 
work, as if a change were to be made and 
something more wonderful were to be 
created. 

Not as if the work were finished, but 
as if there were to be manifested a new 
exercise of the Divine power. All thus 
far had been done by the will of the Lord 
God, or the movement of the Spirit of 
God. But now it looks as if the Elohim, 



A SCIENTIFIC REVELATION. 87 

a plural person, who began creation, again 
co-operates in the work, and His nature 
was to be revealed as it had not been in 
the preceding work. 



88 THE BIBLE 



CHAPTER IX, 



MAN CREA TED, 



Man's dominion. — A link between Matter and GOD. — A 
Day. — Man first an Animal, then a Man. — Woman. — Soul 
and Spirit. — Christ in Creation. — Garden of Eden. — Satan. — 
Remedy for Evil. 

" A ND God said, Let us make man in 
ii our image, and after our likeness ; 
and let them have dominion over the fish 
of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, 
and over the cattle, and over all the earth, 
and over every creeping thing that 
creepeth on the earth." "So God 
created man in His own image, in the 
image of God created He him ; male 
and female created He them." 

This repetition of the creation of man 
'* in the image of God." is a pledge of the 
veracity and certainty of the fact. The 
dominion given to man was to forever be 
another incontrovertible evidence of the 
former truth. Yet this is the being whom 



A SCIENTIFIC REVELATION-. 89 

modern materialists tell us waited two 
or three millions of years, to be devel- 
oped from slime, protoplasm, or monera, 
before he had any existence, or could 
begin to become a man, and exercise the 
dominion. 

Nevertheless God says, as soon as man 
was created, *' And God blessed them, 
and God said unto them, Be fruitful and 
multiply, and replenish the earth, and 
subdue it; and have dominion over the 
fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the 
air, and over every living thing that mov- 
eth on the earth/' 

** And God said. Behold, I have given 
you every herb bearing seed, which is 
upon the face of all the earth, and every 
tree in the which is the fruit of a tree 
yielding seed ; to you it shall be for 
meat." Animal food was not given man 
until after the Deluge. 

And then, after God said. He had given 
everything growing on the earth for food 
for its living creatures. He concludes 
saying, ''And God saw everything that 
He had made, and, behold, it was very 



90 THE BIBLE 



good. And the evening and the morning 
were the sixth day." 

Man was the connecting link between 
God and creation, between the material 
and spiritual worlds. He was so created 
that God might make His last and high- 
est revelation of Himself in man's nature. 
Physical, moral, and spiritual laws were 
in him in a perfect unity and harmony. 
He was the masterpiece of creation. 
That union distinguished man from every 
other living creature God created. It 
now so distinguishes him. 

That all these days were natural days, 
of one revolution of the earth on its axis, 
is intimated in many ways in the Bible. 
But it is asserted with awful solemnity by 
God, where on Mt. Sinai He declares in 
the Law, that the day of rest He appointed 
for man is such a day, as the **six days'' 
in which ''the Lord made Heaven and 
earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and 
rested the seventh day,'' and our Lord 
endorsed it. 

All creation was very good, to accom- 
plish God's present purposes, but it was 



A SCIENTIFIC RE VELA TION, 9 I 



not finished. The six days' work was 
done, but creation was not perfected. 
The Bible reveals a fall of man and a 
Restoration of all things by Man, a 
Regeneration. Then there will be a new 
heaven and a new earth, wherein will 
dwell righteousness. 

The narrative of the six days* work 
does not relate how God created the man 
or the woman ; and but for the recapitu- 
lation, afterwards made, we should never 
have known. The evolution theory would 
have been as probable as any other. 

In that we are told, the first creative 
act was the formation of man, alone. Not 
from any antecedent monera, protoplasm, 
or any living substance. 

**The Lord God formed man of the 
dust of the ground." He first created 
Adam a living being, with a soul-life, like 
other animals — having only an animal, 
instinct, and mortal life. Had God done 
nothing more for him, at death he would 
have become extinct, like other animals ; 
but after that, 

God ''breathed into his nostrils the 



92 



THE BIBLE 



breath of life ; and man became a living 
soul." The life of God breathed into 
man is his immortal spirit. 

Until that last act, man was only a dual 
being, his life and body being created. 
That last act completed the image and 
likeness of God in man. His body, soul, 
and spirit made the image of the triune 
God ; his likeness was a holy spiritual 
life. 

''The rib, which the Lord God had 
taken from man, made He a woman, and 
brought her unto the man. And Adam 
said, This is now bone of my bones, and 
flesh of my flesh ; she shall be called 
Woman, because she was taken out of 
man.*' 

Man was first created from unorganized 
matter, woman was created from an organ- 
ized immortal man. The woman derived 
her life from man's life,,^nd her flesh and 
bones from his flesh and bones. That is, 
her whole nature, physical and spiritual, 
came from man. Nothing in the work of 
creation is more singular than this. 

God took the woman's whole humanity 



A SCIENTIFIC RE VELA TION. 



93 



out of the man. After creating her, God 
did not breath into her an immortal spirit 
as He did into man. And therein was 
the beginning of the unity of the race, 
and the impossibility of the reproduction 
of any posterity, except after their own 
kind. It is a Divine revelation, contro- 
verting the possibility of man's develop- 
ment in any other way. 

Had God created the woman, as He 
did the man, out of the dust of the 
ground, they would not have been '' one 
flesh," but two creations from the dust, 
or earthly elements. 

But God's way made of the twain one 
man, having seed in him, to multiply and 
replenish the earth. It also made the 
twain the one crowning work of creation, 
in God's likeness, and outshadowing the 
future revelation of His own incarnation 
in man. 

It is to be noticed, made noticeable by 
God, that He created man in ways so 
different from the other animals. They 
were created in orders, and families, 
but individually after their kinds. But 



94 'THE BIBLE 



nothing is said of the way in which 
they were created, nor how Hfe was 
given them. Their Hves were created 
— man's immortal life was derivative, 
breathed into him by God. 

Man differed with every other living 
creature, in his tripart nature, in his im- 
mortal spirit, and in his intellect by which 
he learned his origin and destiny. He was 
then, and is now% the only being on earth 
created in the likeness of God, capable of 
knowing his Creator, or his origin and 
destiny. 

Man, alone, is capable of moral, and 
religious, and intellectual; and spiritual 
development. And he is the only living 
being on earth who has the promise from 
God, and the capability in himself, to be 
transformed into a spiritual body, and to 
be translated to God's spiritual kingdom. 

We know certainly, from the scientific 
anaylsis of man*s body, that he was 
formed from the same elements as the dust 
of the ground, because more than twenty 
elements of matter exist in his body. It is 
therefore reasonable that man's soul and 



A SCIENTIFIC RE VELA TION, 95 



body were created simultaneousiy, and 
that the spirit of which physical science 
knows nothing, and can discover nothing, 
was afterwards added. 

Another wonderful revelation is, that 
though the soul dies, body and spirit are 
immortal. The law from creation was. 
'' The soul that sinneth shall die." That 
is, be subjected to the fate of the lower 
animals. 

There was no such law enacted for the 
body or spirit. Though they will be tem- 
porarily separated by death, and '' the 
body is sown in corruption, it will be 
raised in incorruption," and enter on the 
eternal existence for which it was origin- 
ally created. Such is the ultimate design 
of man's creation revealed by the incar- 
nate Son of God. 

The next grandest attribute of his like- 
ness to God, after his immortal life, is the 
free-will given with it. In nothing is man 
more like God than in this. And again, 
in nothing is man more unlike God, be- 
cause He never misuses His will — never 
wills anything but good. 



96 THE BIBLE 



Man's free will involved the power to 
exercise it against God's will, and He 
knew he would so use it. He made laws 
to govern it and make sure of its proper 
use ; and affixed penalties to prevent its 
misuse ; and He provided the means for 
the recovery from the abuse of it, also to 
make the experience of evil to impel him 
to good. 

No revelation is more positive, and 
oftener repeated, than that of the work of 
Creation's Redemption from the evil God 
knew would attend it, and that it was pro- 
vided before the work of Creation began. 
Man was created subject to God's laws. 
And "The Lord God planted a garden 
eastward in Eden ; and there He put the 
man He had formed." In that was 
" every tree that is pleasant to the sight, 
and good for food ; the tree of life also in 
the midst of the garden, and the tree of 
knowledge of good and evil." * * * * 

" And the Lord God commanded the 
man, saying, Of every tree of the garden 
thou mayest freely eat ; but of the tree of 
the knowledge of good and evil, thou 



A SCIENTIFIC REVELATIOX. 



97 



shalt not eat of it ; for in the day that 
thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely 
die." 

That is, become subject to death. 
Faith in God and obedience to that law, 
was religion, or man's obligation to God. 
As long as he obeyed he could eat of the 
tree of life. Religion, therefore, was co- 
eval with man's creation. Righteousness 
would have continued in man had not his 
faith failed. Provision was made to 
restore his lost righteousness, by faith and 
obedience to the new law of sacrifice, 
which looked forward to a Redeemer to 
come. 

St. Peter says, Christ '' verily was fore- 
ordained before the foundation of the 
world." St. John says. Christ was ''the 
Lamb slain from the foundation of the 
world." St. Paul wrote to the Ephesians, 
that God had chosen '' us in Him (Christ) 
before the foundation of the world," and 
Christ says, His kingdom was prepared 
for His disciples to inherit ''from the 
foundation of the world." 

God knew Satan's enmity, and power 



98 THE BIBLE 



to do evil to His works, and He pre- 
pared beforehand to more than remedy it, 
by making it exalt man to a higher eternal 
life, where he can be neither tempted, nor 
sin, nor die. 

As soon as man sinned, God promised 
the Redeemer in the woman's seed. So 
that the remedy for evil was coeval with 
its entrance into this world. 

Yet, like all other living creatures, and 
most plants and trees, man's life had to 
pass through a green and acrid stage — 
the stage of learning how much better 
good is than evil, by experience — before 
he could understand the mystery, why 
God permitted him to be tempted, by 
more powerful spiritual beings, to do 
evil. 

Thus man was from his creation half- 
matter and half-spirit, poised between a 
material and spiritual world. Between 
Christ's kingdom of light and Satan's 
kingdom of darkness. By his free will he 
could choose between them. And when 
from wilfulness or infirmity he erred, 
there was a remedy for his evil. By the 



A SCIENTIFIC REVELATION. 99 

resistance of evil his will became so far 
like God's will. So it has ever since 
been. 

It is a means to all, as it was to the first 
parents of our race, for restoring to them 
a righteousness like God's, and better 
than their lost original innocence. And 
so preparing them, after they have paid 
the death penalty for sin, disobedience, 
and misuse of free will — to be translated 
to a better Paradise than Adam lost, and 
finally, to God's eternal kingdom in 
Heaven. 

There mankind will increase in the 
knowledge and the love of God. And be 
changed into His likeness from glory to 
glory. Then, and not till then, can we 
know all the mystery of God's purposes 
in our creation. 

St. Paul says, '' For now we see 
through a glass darkly ; but then face to 
face : now I know in part ; but then shall 
I know even as also I am known." 

There is discernible a perfect unity in 
the whole plan of Creation. And there is 
perceptible a similar perfect unity in the 



lOO THE BIBLE 



work of Redemption in the Scriptures, 
from the announcement of a Saviour 
from evil in the seed of the woman, 
until Jesus was born in Bethlehem, of 
the Blessed Virgin. 



A SCIENTIFIC REVELATION. lOI 



CHAPTER X. 

SIXTH DAY'S WORK CONTINUED. 

Man's Intellect and Anatomy testify to Genesis. — Geology 
confirms it. — Man's Free Will. — Another Revelation re- 
quired. — Time. — Prof. Huxley. — No evidence of Evolution. — 
Prof. Harvey. — Good Consequent on the Knowledge of Evil. 

JOB and the Psalmist call man's spirit 
'' the candle of the Lord." It is the 
attribute by which we receive comfort 
and guidance from the Spirit of God. 
And there are spiritual laws written in 
our nature, that we are conscious of, and 
they assure us of the truth of the revela- 
tion concerning our origin and destiny, 
and our near relations to God, our 
Creator. 

The manifold revelations in the New 
Testament, respecting the operations of 
God's Spirit, in imparting to us Gospel 
grace and blessings, are confirmed by our 
experience. They are as veritable facts 
as any we acquire by scientific investiga- 
tion. 



102 THE BIBLE 



And that testimony is supplemented 
and confirmed by investigations made 
into the material world — that is, that crea- 
tion began as Genesis represents it ; and 
that all things have continued from the 
beginning as they were created. And 
man's fossil remains are an unimpeach- 
able witness for it. 

For the oldest human remains are 
found with the remains of extinct mas- 
todons, elephants, rhinoceroses, and 
hippopotamuses, and other animals, 
said by speculative geologists to have 
been extinct millions of years. The 
human remains have the same amount of 
animal matter as the others. Their 
deaths, therefore, must have been con- 
temporary. 

The deposits where the remains are 
found are superficial. They cannot, con- 
sequently, be many thousand years old ; 
else they would have lost their animal 
matter, and been reduced to dust by at- 
mospheric changes. 

The human remains testify, that, in the 
remotest times, man's organization and 



A SCIENTIFIC RE VELA TION, 



103 



anatomy were identical with those now 
living. This is another proof of the error 
of the evolution theory, and of the theory 
of modern speculative geologists as to 
man's recentness, and the extinct animals' 
remoteness in time. 

There are many facts of geology which 
confirm the Mosaic account of creation. 
And modern science is yearly furnishing 
more facts to help us understand it. It 
is certain that none but God, who cre- 
ated this world, could have revealed so 
many things about it, which could not be 
interpreted until six thousand years after 
the revelation was made. Things which 
positively refute modern speculative unbe- 
lief. 

The truth is, that the Bible revelation 
is not only scientific, so far as human 
investigation of physical laws has gone. 
But it is far more probable and reason- 
able than any theory yet suggested by 
ancient philosophers, or modern specula 
tive scientists. 

It does not require much discernment 
to perceive that there is order, method 



I04 THE BIBLE 



and unity in the description of the prime- 
val work. That the beginning of Time 
was one of its results, and from it emanated 
all the laws which constitute physical 
science, so far as man has been able to 
trace them. Therefore, instead of the 
Bible's not being scientific, it is the foun- 
dation of all spiritual and physical science 
as it is known to God. 

Moreover, that account of Creation is 
confirmed by the history of the earth, 
written on its crystalline and fossiliferous 
rocks, and by the later testimony of man's 
remains found among extinct marine and 
terrestrial animals. They show that man 
was created coevally with them. That 
he has lived down with them, and has sur- 
vived the catastrophes which destroyed 
them. That from the beginning he has 
been produced only by his own kind, and 
has never produced any other kind than 
he now begets. 

Such is the general testimony, the 
research of investigators have uncon- 
sciously furnished. It confirms the Bible 
as a revelation from God, who created 



I 



A SCIENTIFIC RE VELA TION. \ 05 

all things in six days — not six thousand 
years ago. 

If it were true, as Prof. Huxley asserted 
in his discourse on '^The Rise and Pro- 
gress of Paleontology" at the meeting of 
the British Association at York, *' that 
living matter has existed upon the earth 
for a vast length of time, certainly for 
millions of years,'' then there would be 
millions more of stratified rocks, with 
vegetable and animal remains ; because 
modern observation shows that such 
rocks, and chalk, and sandstones, and 
coral reefs form rapidly. There is a 
report of one coral reef which grew 
twenty-seven feet in one year. One 
gale of wind on the Florida coast swept 
away a sand-bank forty or fifty feet deep, 
by a current from the Gulf Stream, and 
deposited it elsewhere to petrify. 

There is no satisfactory evidence of 
Prof. Huxley's other supposition, *' That, 
during the lapse of time, the forms of 
living matter have undergone repeated 
changes, the effect of which has been that 
the animal and vegetable population at 



1 06 THE BIBLE 



any period of the earth's history contains 
some species which did not exist at some 
antecedent time." 

And there is no probable evidence of 
his supposition, '*That many groups of 
mammals, and some reptiles," can be fol- 
lowed through geological time, in a series 
of different forms, '' exactly such as it 
would be if they had been produced by 
the gradual modification of the earliest 
forms of the series." 

If that were so, millions of examples 
would exist where one kind was passing 
through *' the gradual modification," and 
not one single example has ever been 
found. 

Varieties form, as we see in men and 
mammals, and lower forms, and then die 
out, as many kinds of animals have died 
out, and are now dying out. Their 
remains are mingled with others which 
lived before and after them. But the 
continuity of the vegetable and animal 
forms, as they now exist and have existed 
from the beginning, is incontrovertible. 

We know that visible changes take 



r 



A SCIENTIFIC RE VELA TION. \ o 7 



place in migratory animals, and animals 
transported to different climates and food. 
Large horses become smaller, but they 
lose none of the characteristic horse-anat- 
omy. Sheep change the fibres of their 
wool, etc., but the sheep-anatomy is 
unchanged. 

Many years ago. Prof. Harvey, of Dub- 
lin University, told me that he once found 
a marine shell common on the sea-coast 
of Ireland, which by some accident had 
got into a pool of brackish water, and had 
changed considerably, in a single exter- 
nal characteristic, from its original type. 
But inside the living animal was un- 
changed. Food, climate, and habitat 
effect all living creatures from man to the 
protozoa. But they only effect the exte- 
rior, or distort the animal's appearance, 
as hunger and hardships do some men. 

Though God pronounced man, like 
everything else then created, '' very good," 
it was in reference only to his original 
creation and condition at that moment. 
And although he was in the image and 
likeness of God, a perfect adult man, yet 



108 THE BIBLE 



he had a free will resembling God's, but 
not infinite, and subject to His laws. It 
was consequently possible for him to dis- 
obey, while he was warned of the penalty 
of his disobedience. 

But God had made provision to secure 
him from the consequences of his disobe- 
dience. To teach him the knowledge of 
good; as well as evil, and be the means 
of developing his spiritual life and intel- 
lect. And so cause him to desire and try 
to regain his lost innocence, and raise 
him to a higher degree of righteousness, 
and fit him for an eternal life with Him 
in Heaven. And not until then will 
God's purposes in the creation of the 
universe and man be known. 

Meanwhile, man is the only living crea- 
ture on earth, who knows who God his 
Creator is. What he was created for. 
What death is, or that there is another life 
beyond it. He is the only being on earth 
who has a will so free, that he can use it 
for good or evil as he pleases. Or who is 
capable of being educated, by the expe- 
rience of them, for a higher life than Adam 



A SCIENTIFIC REVELATION. 109 

lost, and for a better Paradise than the 
earthly one, from which God expelled 
him. There he will be educated and pre- 
pared for his Heavenly kingdom. 

God is infinite, and though we were 
created in His image and likeness and' 
have lost our original innocence, some 
resemblance of His godliness lingers in 
us. And the regeneration, instituted by 
Christ, makes us again His spiritual chil- 
dren. Yet we cannot fully understand 
the revelation made in either His works, 
or words, or life. But we can understand 
enough, to know how much wiser He is 
than we are, and that both show His wis- 
dom and love. That He is worthy of 
our reverence, obedience, and adoration. 
If we could perfectly understand all, we 
should conclude that He knows no more 
than we do, and should lose much of our 
reverence for Him. 



I 1 O THE BIBLE 



CHAPTER XI. 

THE INCARNATION, 

The Perfection of Creation. — Satan. — Covenants. — The 
Redeemer. — Prophecies. — Gabriers Annunciation. — The An- 
gels. — Christ Essential in Creation. — The Magii. — Tiberius. 
— Christ Began a New Era. 

GOD'S first prophetical promise of a 
Redeemer, in the seed of the woman, 
the incarnate Son of God, in the Son of 
Man, was to reveal Himself as a Person in 
Christ, to repair the moral and physical 
evil that would attend creation, and be 
His last work to perfect it. As soon as 
man felt the pain and remorse caused by 
sin, God provided the remedy for it. 
The seed of the woman would bruise the 
serpent's head — that is, destroy his power. 
The knowledge of good came to man at 
the same time as evil, and with it. 

Satan, a fallen archangel, the enemy of 
God, appeared on the fore-front of crea- 
tion, as its enemy, as soon as man was 



A SCIENTIFIC RE VELA TION \ \ i 

created. And any view of creation which 
does not consider the part he was to act 
in injuring it, must be imperfect. What 
that meant lay in shadow for more than 
three thousand years. God was all that 
time silent respecting it. Except as it 
was continuously adumbrated by animal 
sacrifices, and the covenant of God with 
Abraham, in man's blood. 

Those two covenants looked forward 
to the third one in Christ, whereby man 
obtained salvation. One was by the blood 
of animals, the other by man's blood, and 
obedience to God's laws. And both were 
efficacious through faith in the Redeemer 
to come, and shed His blood for the sins 
of mankind. '' The Lamb of God slain 
from the foundation of the world." 

The Psalmist made many prophecies 
concerning Christ, as the Son of God. 
But they were so mysterious that they 
could not be interpreted until Jesus was 
born. Two and a half centuries later, 
the prophet Ahaz first began to lift the 
veil from the mystery. He foretold how 
the Redeemer would come. 



I I 2 THE BIBLE 



"Therefore, the Lord Himself shall 
give a sign ; Behold a virgin shall con- 
ceive, and bear a Son and shall call His 
name Emmanuel/' 

Two years later God revealed to Isaiah, 
that at His coming, ''The people who 
walked in darkness have seen a great 
Light ; they who dwell in the land of the 
shadow of death, upon them hath the 
Light shined." 

'^ For unto us a Child is born, unto us a 
Son is given ; and the government shall 
be upon His shoulders; and His Name 
shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, 
the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, 
the Prince of Peace." 

*' Of the increase of His government 
and peace there shall be no end, upon the 
throne of David, and upon His kingdom, 
to order it, and to establish it with judg- 
ment, and with justice henceforth even 
forever." 

That is, the Messiah's kingdom would 
be the successor, and completion of the 
Theocracy, and, unlike that, never end. 
Two centuries later, God sent the 



A SCIENTIFIC RE VELA TION, 



IM 



Archangel Gabriel to inform the prophet 
Daniel, that the King on the throne of 
David will be the Messiah. 

''To finish the transgression, and to 
make an end of sins, and to make recon- 
ciliation for iniquity, and to bring in ever- 
lasting righteousness, and to seal up the 
vision and prophecy, and to annoint the 
Most Holy." 

Then Gabriel told Daniel the exact 
time, when the Messiah would come. 
"And after three-score and two weeks 
shall Messiah be cut off, but not for Him- 
self." The ancient sacrifices would cease. 
Thus one event after another, that was to 
distinguish the Messiah, was gradually 
revealed, to prepare His way, so defi- 
nitely that there could be do doubt as to 
His person when He should come. 

The foretelling that the Daily Sacrifice 
and oblation would cease, was the first in- 
timation that they would give place to a 
sacramental and more spiritual worship. 
Daniel thus describes Christ's kingdom. 

"There was given Him dominion, and 
glory, and a kingdom, that all people. 



I 14 THE BIBLE 



nations, and languages, should serve Him. 
His dominion is an everlasting dominion, 
which shall not pass away, and His king- 
dom that which shall not be destroyed." 

Here God broadly exposed His revela- 
tion to detection and refutation if untrue. 
But when we reflect that the prophecy 
was made five hundred and fifty years 
before Christ, and now compare the king- 
dom with it, nineteen centuries after, who 
can doubt that God revealed it ? 

There was continual intercourse be- 
tween Heaven and the earth, in making 
preparations for the Son of God's coming. 
The Archangel Gabriel was a special 
messenger. After waiting five hundred 
and fifty years more, Gabriel appeared to 
Joseph, who was betrothed to the virgin, 
who was to be the Child's mother, and 
said to him, 

''Joseph, thou son of David, fear not 
to take unto thee Mary thy wife ; for that 
which is conceived in her is of the Holy 
Ghost. And she shall bring forth a Son 
and thou shalt call His Name JESUS ; for 
He shall save His people from their sins." 



A SCIENTIFIC REVELATION. I 15 

Here it is noticeable how consistent 
the consecutive revelations are. They 
extend through centuries, but foretell 
the same events. And God sent from 
Heaven the Name of the Child. St. 
Matthew adds, ''All this was done that 
it might be fulfilled which was spoken 
of the Lord by the prophet, saying, 

'' Behold a virgin shall be with child, 
and shall bring forth a Son, and they 
shall call His Name Emmanuel, which, 
being interpreted, is, God with us." 

Thus, it was four thousand years after 
God promised a Saviour, in the seed of 
the woman, before He revealed His 
name. And the wonders of the Annun- 
ciation of His coming were not then com- 
pleted ; angels and men were yet to 
give further testimony to the accomplish- 
ment of God's words and promise. 

St, Luke says the angel Gabriel, not 
long after his message to Joseph, ap- 
peared to '' a certain priest named Zacha- 
rias, of the course of Abia," while he 
was in the Temple burning incense, and 
said unto him : 



I 1 6 THE BIBLE 



** Fear not, Zacharias, for thy prayer is 
heard ; and thy wife Eh'sabeth shall bear 
thee a son, and thou shalt call his name 
John, "^ "^ "^ he shall be filled with the 
Holy Ghost, even from his mother's 
womb." 

** And he shall go before Him in the 
spirit and power of Elias, "^ ^ ^ to make 
ready a people prepared for the Lord." 

•' After those days Elisabeth conceived, 
and hid herself five months. "^ ^ -^ And 
in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was 
sent from God unto a city of Galilee, 
named Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to 
a man, whose name was Joseph, of the 
House of David ; and the virgin's name 
was Mary." 

'' And the Angel came in unto her, and 
said. Hail, thou that art highly favored, 
the Lord is with thee ; blessed art thou 
among women." When she was troubled 
Gabriel said, 

'' Fear not, Mary ; for thou hast found 
favor with God. And, behold, thou shalt 
conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a 
Son, and shalt call His name Jesus. He 



A SCIEXTIFIC REVELATION 



117 



\ 



shall be great, and shall be called the 
Son of the Highest ; and the Lord God 
shall give unto Him the throne of His 
father David. And He shall reign over 
the House of Jacob forever ; and of His 
kingdom there shall be no end." 

Gabriel answered to Mary's doubt of 
the possibility of such a child, '' The 
Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and 
the power of the Highest shall over- 
shadow thee : therefore also that Holy 
thing which shall be born of thee shall be 
called the Son of God." The means of 
salvation were in God's first promise in 
the seed of the woman. 

The revelation of the Son of God in 
that seed, after four thousand years, 
shows that God's ways are not as man's 
ways. It teaches us humility in discus 
sing them. 

But the wonderful details of the events 
attending the Incarnation did not end 
then. Gabriel told Mary, her cousin 
Elisabeth, six months before, had con- 
ceived a son, but he said nothino- of his 



relations as the Messenger of her Son, 



1 1 8 THE BIBLE 



Mary immediately went to see her 
cousin in the hill country of Juda, ''and 
entered into the house of Zacharias, and 
saluted Elisabeth. And it came to pass 
that when Elisabeth heard the salutation 
of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb ; 
and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy 
Ghost." 

'* And she spake out with a loud voice 
and said, Blessed art thou among women, 
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. 
And whence is this to me, that the 
mother of my Lord should come to me? 
For, lo, as soon as the voice of thy salu- 
tation sounded in mine ears, the babe 
leaped in my womb for joy.*' 

When Elisabeth's son was born, he was 
given the name designated by Gabriel — 
John, the gift of the Lord. And '' Zacha- 
rias, filled with the Holy Ghost, prophe- 
sied, saying : 

'' Blessed be the Lord God of Israel ; 
for He* hath visited and redeemed His 
people, and hath raised up a horn of sal- 
vation for us, in the House of His servant 
David.'* ^ ^ ^ ^ 



A SCIENTIFIC RE VELA TION. 



119 



And of John he said, '' And thou, child, 
shalt be called the Prophet of the High- 
est, for thou shalt go before the face of 
the Lord, to prepare His ways." 

But the climax of these Heavenly 
wonders was reserved for Jesus' birth. 
Gabriel again appears to the shepherds, 
near Bethlehem, with a multitude of the 
Heavenly host. And Gabriel said to them : 

'' Behold, I bring you good tidings of 
great joy, which shall be to all people. 
For unto you is born this day, in the city 
of David, a Saviour, who is Christ the 
Lord. And this shall be a sign unto 
you : Ye shall find the babe wrapped in 
swaddling-clothes, lying in a manger. 
And suddenly there was with the Angel 
a multitude of the Heavenly host, prais- 
ing God, and saying. Glory to God in the 
highest, and on earth peace, good will 
toward men." 

The angels were deeply interested in 
all the preliminaries for the Incarnation. 
They ministered to Christ all his earthly 
life. After His temptation and agony in 
the garden, He said He had ''more than 



I 20 THE BIBLE 



twelve legions of ancrels " at His call. 
And angels came down to witness and 
testify to His resurrection and Ascension 
to Heav^en. He also said that the angels 
would continue to the world's end to 
watch over the heirs of salvation, and 
rejoice when sinners repent. It is not 
in the power of man's imagination to 
invent such a series of incidents as these, 
unless they were true. 

All this proves that Jesus' birth was 
not an isolated event in God's work of 
creation. It was an essential conse- 
quence of the original creation of matter, 
and of its final perfection. It was and is, 
the greatest event in our world's history, 
and deeply interested the angels in 
heaven. In Christ, God, and man, mat- 
ter and spirit were forever united, and 
man was brought into new spiritual rela- 
tions to God. By regeneration from 
Christ, man is changed from a carnal to 
a spiritual state ; and a new race of men, 
of a higher type than Adam, has been 
created. And at His second Advent, 
man and creation will pass through their 



A SCIEXTIFIC RE VELA flOX. \ 2 I 



last change ; one will be made immortal, 
and the other eternal. 

There is a chain of connection between 
God's first prophecy respecting the seed 
of the woman, and the last one made by 
Gabriel to the Blessed Virgin. And the 
chain is made so strong, by the wisdom 
and power of God, that no unbelief of 
man can break one of its links. 

No human mind could have imaeined 
such a series of prophecies. It is as 
impossible as it would be to make a world, 
to have maintained the order and se- 
quence of the prophecies, to say nothing 
o{ the Divine and supernatural events 
connected with them. It would take more 
genius to invent such a series of proph- 
ecies, and such a narrative, than a 
thousand intellects like Shakespeare's 
combined. 

They run through four thousand years. 
They have been connected, and perfectly 
consistent, in all the changes, the ups and 
downs, human society and civilization 
have passed through. They have been 
subjected to the fiercest criticism of the 



I 2 2 THE BIBLE 



human mind. And now, in the blazing 
light of this nineteenth century, they 
stand unimpeached and unimpeachable. 

Then, again, there was another signal 
act in creation, not long after Jesus' birth, 
which showed that the physical cosmos 
sympathized with the spiritual world. 
Fifteen centuries before, prophecy fore- 
told that a miraculous star would herald 
the Redeemer's birth to the Gentile 
world. St. Matthew says, Wise men 
from the East at Jerusalem said, ''we 
have seen His star in the East, and are 
come to worship Him." That was rea- 
sonable, if Redemption were a conse- 
quence of creation. 

No event in our world's history is more 
positively established than that Jesus 
Christ was born in the reign of Cesar 
Augustus. St. Luke says , '' there went 
out a decree from Cesar Augustus, that 
all the world should be taxed," when 
'* Cyrenius was governor of Syria." And 
Joseph and Mary went to Bethlehem to 
be taxed, and while they were there Mary 
*' brought forth her first-born Child." 



A SCIENTIFIC RE VELA TION. 



123 



That record is confirmed by the Roman 
archives. The next century Justin Mar- 
tyr referred the Roman emperor and Sen- 
ate to that record, as a proof of Christ's 
birth at Bethlehem. He fixed the time, 
saying, it was when Cyrenius was first 
procurator in Judea. And it looks as if 
he were then there in that capacity, was 
a notary of the registering, eleven years 
before he was made governor of Syria. 

Now, both the sacred and civil records 
are confirmed in a remarkable way, by 
two other facts. First, that the Emperor 
Tiberius, in whose reign Christ began 
and ended His ministry, proposed to 
erect a statue to Him in the Pantheon, 
and the Senate refused it. Second, that 
all Christendom confesses its faith in the 
fact that Jesus was then born, by the 
adoption oi Anno Domini, as the year of 
Christ's birth, and as the beginning of the 
Christian era. 

Finally, there is no other fact in our 
world's history, and especially in Christ's 
life, that is more severely testified to than 
His resurrection. The efforts of the rulers 



124 



THE BIBLE 



of the Jews, aided by Pilate and Roman 
soldiers, to prove that He would not rise 
on the third day after His crucifixion, es- 
tablished the fact beyond all doubt, if 
anything in human history can be be- 
lieved on human testimony. 

Moreover, at Christ's crucifixion and 
resurrection, there were also astounding 
confirmations of the intimate relations 
and the sympathy between God's works 
of creation and redemption. '' From the 
sixth hour there was darkness over all the 
land unto the ninth hour." The sun, in 
the physical world, sympathized with the 
going down of the Sun of Righteousness 
in the horizon of time. 

And when Jesus yielded up His spirit, 
*' Behold, the vail of the temple was rent 
in twain from the top to the bottom, and 
the earth did quake, and the rocks rent ; 
and the graves were opened, and many 
bodies of the saints which slept, arose." 

And again, at His resurrection, '^ Be- 
hold, there was a great earthquake ; for 
the angel of the Lord descended from 
heaven," ^ ^ "^ a ^.xvdi for fear of 



A SCIENTIFIC REVELATION. 



125 



him the keepers did shake and become 
as dead men." ^ ^ ^ a Some of the 
watch came into the city, and showed 
unto the chief priests all the things that 
were done." ^ ^ ^ '' They gave large 
money unto the soldiers, saying. Say ye, 
His disciples came by night, and stole 
Him away, while we slept." That was 
never denied in that generation. 

Thus it is apparent that as Creation 
and the Incarnation began with a miracle, 
so did the Incarnation end in a miracu- 
lous sympathy of the physical creation. 



126 THE BIBLE 



CHAPTER XII. 

CHRIST'S MESSIANIC KINGDOM. 

Redemption provided before Creation. — The Church. — 
Christianity older than Creation. — Christ in two Kingdoms. — 
He showed the Relation between the Material and Spiritual 
Worlds.— The Unity of God's Revelations. 

"/^OD, who at sundry times, and in 
Vjr divers manners, spake in times past 
unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in 
these last days spoken unto us by His 
Son, whom He hath appointed Heir of all 
things* by whom also He made the 
worlds ; who, being the brightness of 
His glory and the express image of His 
Person, and upholding all things by the 
word of His power, when He had by 
Himself purged our sins, sat down on the 
right hand of the Majesty on high." 

These words of St. Paul to his Hebrew 
converts to Christianity, are a remarkable 
confirmation of the connection of Crea- 
tion and of all prophecy, respecting the 



A SCIENTIFIC RE VEIA TION. \ 2 7 

Incarnation. They confirm the Mosaic 
genesis of Creation, called into being by 
the word of the Son of God. They 
affirm that He has the glory and is the 
express image of God. And that He has 
ever since upheld Creation and all its 
physical laws by the word of His power. 
That by His Incarnate life and death He 
purged the sins of mankind. And that 
for His earthly Messiahship He was 
seated at God's right hand. 

That is a plain synoptical statement of 
the origin, the design, and the final object 
of God's three revelations, in His Works, 
and Words, and Life. It shows that Re- 
demption was provided before sin and 
death entered the world. That it was 
anticipatory of Creation. 

There was an earthly Paradise, the 
Holy Catholic Church, for mankind, be- 
fore they were created. That was the 
beginning of Christ's kingdom. There 
was the promise of a Saviour, in the seed 
of the woman, before man sinned or the 
promise was made. 

The forbidden fruit was for the trial of 



128 THE BIBLE 



man's free will. By disobedience he 
learned the difference between good and 
evil. Thus faith and obedience were 
fundamental principles of religion then as 
they have ever since been. 

When man was expelled from Paradise 
a covenant in sacrifice, and a priesthood 
in each first-born son, were instituted as 
types of Christ, and a Reformation of the 
Church began under a new form. It 
has had but the *'one foundation, Jesus 
Christ." Its work, from the beginning, 
has been to redeem Creation from the 
evils God foresaw would attend His gift 
of a free will to man. And to prepare a 
people for His eternal kingdom. 

Thus it appears that Christ's Messianic 
kingdom had its foundations in Creation. 
His human nature and kingdom were in 
it, as were also all its members. Man 
was made of its dust ; Jesus was created 
in the woman's seed. His kingdom was 
founded on His death. He was the Rock 
of its foundation. 

St. Paul said, God "' hath chosen us 
(Christians) in Him (Jesus Christ) before 



A SCIENTIFIC RE VELA TION. 



129 



the foundations of the world." And 
again, ** But of Him are we in Christ 
Jesus, who, of God, is made unto us wis- 
dom, and righteousness, and sanctifica- 
tion, and redemption." That word re- 
demption looks back to the first promise 
of the Redeemer, and shows that Chris- 
tianity was not only coeval with creation, 
and looked onward to its end, but was 
operative in Heaven before Christ was 
Incarnate on earth. 

The Son of God was called the Christ 
in Heaven, and healed the strife Satan 
caused there by His sacrifice on earth. 
The benefits of His redemption were first 
experienced by the angels. 

''There was war in Heaven : Michael 
and his angels fought against the dragon ; 
and the dragon fought and his angels, 
and prevailed not ; neither was their 
place found any more in Heaven; ^ "^ * 
he was cast out into the earth, and his 
angels w^ere cast out with him. -^ -^ ^ 
And they overcame him by the Blood of 
the LAMB." 

St. Paul says, God's covenant with 



I 30 THE BIBLE 



Abraham was four hundred and thirty 
years before the Law. That Christ led 
the IsraeHtes out of Egypt. That He 
fed them in the wilderness." **They all 
drank of that spiritual Rock that fol- 
lowed them, and that Rock was Christ." 
And Moses, and Samuel, and the 
Psalmist call Christ the Rock and God 
of salvation. Isaiah said, '' In the Lord 
Jehovah is the Rock of Ages." And the 
Psalmist said, '' Thy kingdom is an ever- 
lasting kingdom," which looks onward to 
its future endurance, and its unrevealed 
nature, 

When God made a further revelation of 
His kingdom from Mt. Sinai, He insti- 
tuted three orders of the ministry, making 
its government like the kingdom in 
Heaven. St. Paul said, '' Jerusalem 
which is above is free, which is the mother 
of us all." He represented the Church as 
the mysterious outgrowth from Heaven, 
a spiritual kingdom founded on the mate- 
rial one. 

When the earthly Paradise was closed, 
it had a Heavenly one provided, where 



A SCIENTIFIC REVELATION. 13I 

the members go, and ^' live according to 
God in the spirit," and are fitted for res- 
urrection bodies to live in the kingdom 
in Heaven, when Christ comes again to 
finish His work of Creation. 

Isaiah predicted the future glory of 
Christ's kingdom on earth. We see it 
fulfilled. *' It shall come to pass in the 
last days, that the mountain of the Lord's 
House shall be established on the top 
of the mountains, and shall be exalted 
above the hills ; and all nations shall 
flow unto it." 

St. Paul says, it was '' to make all men 
see what is the fellowship of the mystery, 
which from the beginning of the world 
hath been hid in God, who created all 
things by Jesus Christ ; to the intent that 
now, unto the Principalities and Powers in 
Heavenly places, might be known by the 
CHURCH the manifold wisdom of God, 
according to the eternal purpose which 
He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord." 
The work of redemption, therefore, had 
reference to other beings than men. 

The Church, being Christ's Messianic 



132 THE BIBLE 



kingdom, is represented as a means of 
conveying to the angelic hierarchy, as it 
does to men, such revelations of God as 
neither angels nor men would ever have 
known without it. 

Here are named two grand results of 
these three connected revelations of God. 
First, they make His power, and wisdom, 
and love, and mercy better known to the 
angels. Second, they were for the crea- 
tion of an order of men of a higher type 
than the angels, who are members of 
Christ, and spiritual children of God. 

St. Paul says, when Jesus* humanity 
'*sat down on the right hand of the 
Majesty on high, being made so much 
better than the angels, as He hath ob- 
tained a more excellent name than they. 
For unto which of the angels said He at 
any time. Thou art my Son, this day have 
I begotten thee !" 

**And again, when He bringeth the 
first begotten into the world, He saith. 
And let all the angels of God worship 
Him.'* ^ * ^ 

'' But unto the Son He saith, Thy 



A SCIENTIFIC RE VELA TION, 



"^ZZ 



throne, O, God, Is forever and ever ; a 
sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of 
Thy kingdom." 

And then, to connect the whole work 
of Redemption with Creation, he said, 
'' And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast 
laid the foundation of the earth ; and the 
heavens are the works of Thine hands." 
This was said as an assurance that, as 
God had done such a mighty work, so 
also was He able to accomplish such a 
glorious purpose. 

Again, to show the relations between 
the physical and spiritual kingdoms, 
Christ appointed a ministry of three 
orders of men. And He made water, 
bread, and wine the visible agents to 
convey the invisible spiritual grace of 
His Heavenly kingdom, and to sustain 
the spiritual life of its members. 

Having made all the preparations to 
transfer the old kingdom of Israel to His 
kingdom of Heaven, when the Holy 
Ghost came, the evening before His 
crucifixion, He transferred His power to 
His apostles, saying, '' I appoint unto you 



I 34 THE BIBLE 



a kingdom, as My Father hath appointed 
unto Me ; that ye may eat, and drink 
at My table in My kingdom." 

And at last, when arraigned before 
Pilate, He said to him, '* My kingdom is 
not of this world." It was His by creat- 
ing it, not a temporal kingdom. Not for 
this world only ; but to be perfected at 
the regeneration of Creation. In His two 
kingdoms, of nature and of grace, are in- 
cluded all the laws which constitute the 
science of God. [Ps. xciv., lo.] 

St. Paul delighted to express his faith in 
this prospect, and the confidence he had 
in its final consummation. He wrote to 
the Ephesians : '' Blessed be the God 
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who 
hath blessed us with all spiritual bless- 
ings in Heavenly places in Christ ; ac- 
cording as He hath chosen us in Him, 
before the foundation of the world." 

** That, in the dispensation of the fullness 
of times, He might gather together in one 
all things in Christ, both which are in 
Heaven, and which are on earth ; even in 
Him." 



A SCIENTIFIC RE VELA TION. 



^35 



** Which is the earnest of our inherit- 
ance until the redemption of the pur- 
chased possession, unto the praise of His 
glory." 

'' And what is the exceeding greatness 
of His power to us-ward who believe, ac- 
cording to the working of His mighty 
power, which He wrought in Christ, when 
He raised Him from the dead, and set 
Him at His own right hand in the 
Heavenly places. Far above all prin- 
cipality, and power, and might, and do- 
minion, and every name that is named, 
not only in this world, but also in that 
which is to come." ^' And hath put all 
things under His feet, and gave Him to be 
the Head over all things to the Church, 
which is His body, the fullness of Him 
who filleth all in all." 

We see the faith of St. Paul in this 
personally, where he wrote to the Corin- 
thians, '* We know that if our earthly 
house of this tabernacle were dissolved, 
we have a building of God, a house not 
made with hands eternal in the Heavens." 

And again he said, "• But now is Christ 



136 THE BIBLE 



risen from the dead, and become the 
first fruits of them that slept." That is 
the type of all mankind's resurrection ; 
and the possibility and assurance, that 
through membership in His body the 
Church, His Messianic kingdom, they will 
have a like resurrection, and an inherit- 
ance in His eternal kingdom. 

And St. James corroborates St. Paul, 
saying, God '' of His own will begat He 
us with the word of truth, that we should 
be a kind of first fruits of His creatures." 
How this strikes our minds and confirms 
the analogies of our Creation and Redemp- 
tion ! By His word God created us. By 
His Word He redeemed us. 

The continuity of thought and action 
run through the works, and words, and 
life of God, as they are thus revealed to 
us. And the promise and prospect they 
open to us convey these truths in so many 
wonderful and positive ways, as if it were 
to compel our belief in them. 

The revelations appear to be one con- 
tinuous chain, without a break, from the 
beginning to the end. Creation and God, 



A SCIENTIFIC RE VELA TION. \ 3 7 

earth and Heaven, man and Christ, sin 
and redemption, are inseparably joined. 
It makes God the starting-point, and the 
goal of Creation, Revelation, and Re- 
demption. 

And in all those relations they show 
Him to be worthy of our love, and trust, 
and adoration. In them we see the chasm 
bridged over that separates physics from 
metaphysics, and pneumatology, and that 
they are parts of one grand whole. 

There is as much faith required to be- 
lieve in visible things as in invisible ones. 
We can no more progress in physical 
knowledge without faith then we can in 
spiritual. There is no other way to under- 
stand how the w^orlds were made but by 
faith. '* He that cometh to God must 
believe that He is." '' And faith cometh 
by hearing." Consequently, whoever re- 
fuses to hear, that is to read and believe 
in God's word, need expect no help from 
Him, to understand His works, whether 
physical or spiritual. 



138 THE BIBLE 



CHAPTER XIII. 

CHRIST'S MINISTRY ON EARTH, 

The World in Christ's Day. — Evil explained. — His Di- 
vinity unknown until after His Ascension. — He began a Ne\< 
Era. — He Revolutionized the Spirit of the Age. — One more 
Stage of Creation. 

WHEN Christ began His earthly mis- 
sion, the world was living in gross 
darkness. The monotheism of the Jews 
and the polytheism of the Gentiles, and 
their animal sacrifices had failed to keep 
men from a downward course to immor- 
ality, and ignorance of the true God, and 
to social degradation. 

The Jews, with God's written law, had 
so corrupted it by their traditions that 
Christ denounced them as hypocrites, 
and a generation of vipers, and asked 
them how they expected to escape ^' the 
damnation of hell." 

The Gentiles, without the written law, 
had tried the experiment of living by the 



A SCIENTIFIC RE VEIA TION. 



139 



light of nature and reason. But they fell 
into more deplorable ignorance, super- 
stition and idolatry. 

The Oriental nations had preserved 
some knowledge of God's revelation by 
tradition. They elaborated a system 
mixed with truth and error. But it was 
degrading to man, by its doctrine of me- 
tempsychosis. It offered nothing better 
than a selfish hope of eternal rest, or 
oblivion. 

The Chinese had formed a materialistic 
creed, which produced no high civilization 
in time, and no hopes in the future, that 
would morally elevate them. 

Greek culture and thought had had in 
it some truth, derived from the Egyptians 
and Hebrews. But it had become so 
mixed with materialism and idolatry that 
it no longer benfited them. Art, litera- 
ture, and civilization had long been on the 
decline. The best the men of that gene- 
ration could do was to erect ** an altar to 
the unknown God." 

Roman civilization had reached its 
zenith before Jesus was born. No period 



140 THE BIBLE 



in Roman history was more wretched 
than that which transpired in the last 
years of Tiberius, and the revolutions 
and assassinations that followed them. 

The whole world was in the condition 
foretold by Isaiah, **The people walked 
in darkness/' and dwelt '' in the land 
of the shadow of death/' While a few 
pious Jews expected the Messiah, a Greek 
philosopher had said, three centuries be- 
fore, he saw no hope for man until ''a 
Deliverer came from on high/' 

God had made mankind see their need 
•of some other help from Him, to raise 
them from the political, moral, and social 
condition into which they had fallen. 
And that was the fullness of time, when 
He sent His Son to furnish it. 

Jesus' first recorded act was submit- 
ting His human flesh to God's law. He 
entered into God's covenant and Church 
by shedding His blood. His last volun- 
tary act in the flesh was submitting His 
will to the Father's will, and shedding 
His blood for man's salvation. 

Before Christ, sin, suffering, and death 



A SCIEXTIFIC RE VELA TIOK. \ 4 1 

were inexplicable mysteries. God per- 
mitted satan to cause evils, not because 
He could not prevent them ; but as a 
consequence of creation, and because 
without them He could not reveal His 
love and mercy, nor exalt man to a higher 
spiritual life, where those evils would no 
more assault him. And also to introduce 
riorhteousness and eternal life. 

Satan, having become God's enemy, 
tried to injure man created in God's image 
and likeness. And God caused his en- 
mity to reveal His goodness, as neither 
men nor angels could have known it 
without that enmity. 

We learn, as Adam did, by experience, 
how much better righteousness is than 
sin. How much better it is to serve God 
than satan. We know that death is but 
a new birth to an eternal life. 

The Son of God was incarnate, in the 
Son of Man, to enter into the strife satan 
caused, and to remedy it. By His Gos- 
pel and example he told men how to 
overcome satan. By His Church He 
provided the means to help men to do 



142 THE BIBLE 



it. By His death He remedied the evil 
satan caused, and gave eternal life to all 
mankind. And by His resurrection and 
ascension to Heaven, He assured men 
He had opened the way there for all His 
disciples. 

Jesus began His ministry calling men 
to repent, '' For the Kingdom of God is 
at hand.'* That was His first intimation 
of His Messiahship. Though He did 
not then call it His Kingdom. But He 
went on to show by His life and doctrines, 
that He was the Messiah of prophecy. 
And it was not until near the end of His 
ministry that he declared that He came 
from God. That whoever had seen Him 
had seen the Father, and that '' I and my 
Father are one." So men should honor 
Him even as they honor the Father. 

Jesus' mother and apostles knew not 
that he was God Incarnate until after 
His resurrection and ascension, and the 
coming of the Holy Ghost. It was one 
of the things which, with their monothe- 
istic ideas of God, they were not able 
until then to bear. 



A SCIENTIFIC RE VELA TION, \ 43 

He began His work on the lowest 
stratum of society. He said He came, 
not to call the righteous, but sinners. 
Men must believe, repent, and become 
His disciples. He chose His apostles 
and friends from the common people. 
He went among them, healing the sick, 
comforting mourners, feeding the hungry 
and raising the dead. 

He declared the kingdom of God at 
hand, and was baptized into its covenant. 
He said the hour had come when the 
temple worship and sacrifice would cease, 
and men would worship God in spirit 
and in truth. He gradually gave them 
new ideas of the spirituality of the law, 
and of a new worship, sacrifice changed 
to sacrament, Judaism transferred and 
transformed into Christianity, and His 
coming Messianic kingdom. 

Without observation, He chose twelve 
apostles and seventy ministers, who, with 
Himself, made a three-fold government. 
These completed His kingdom's rulers. 
But the apostles were not empowered 
to receive the power He had received 



144 ^^^' BIBLE 



from the Father, until His ascension to 
Heaven, and He sent the Holy Spirit. 

The people were astonished. Thou- 
sands came to hear His instruction. 
Some believed Him the Messiah, others 
only a great prophet. But when He 
told them of the resurrection, of future 
eternal rewards and punishments, and 
other Heavenly truths — of men's bodies 
to become like the angels' — then, the 
enthusiasm increased, and the people 
wanted to make Him a king. The rulers 
feared a revolution, and that the Romans 
would take away their authority, and 
began to persecute Him. His teaching 
opened a new world of thought, and ex- 
panded the horizon of human life, and 
created new hopes and desires. 

Christ created a new Spirit of the Age, 
Faith, hope, and charity received a new 
impulse. He gave mankind a new exam- 
ple. He lived in accord with God's 
physical and spiritual laws. He showed 
that both were subject to Him. He 
taught the people that becoming mem- 
bers of His kingdom, and following His 



A SCIENTIFIC REVELATION, 145 



example, would form in them a manhood 
like His. He challenged them to try it. 
He assured them that they would know 
that His doctrines were of God. 

He revealed the spirituality of the 
law. And He gave a new commandment 
according to its spirit, saying, ''This is 
My commandment, That ye love one 
another as I have loved you. Greater 
love hath no man than this, that a man 
lay down his life for his friends." 

That was the letter of the Law. He 
gave its spirit in His example of laying 
down His life for His enemies. St. Paul 
said, *' While we were yet sinners, Christ 
died for us." When He made the apostles 
understand that He had come as the 
Lamb of God to suffer for the sins of 
mankind, St. Peter remonstrated against 
it. So little did he understand prophecy, 
and the object of Christ's mission. 

Jesus' patient endurance of poverty 
and persecution, His self-denial, His 
works of love and mercy, and His prayer 
for His murderers while on the cross, 
revolutionized the old poles of society. 



146 THE BIBLE 



For pride and selfishness, He substi- 
tuted humility and charity ; for suffering 
and shame, He promised eternal joy and 
glory. And the future rewards and pun- 
ishments, which He made known for 
deeds done here, gave new aspects to life 
and death, and new motives to influence 
man's conduct. 

Jesus' revelation of the Heavenly mys- 
teries, such as no human imagination 
had ever imagined, gave men new ideas 
of God's love and mercy, and of His ulti- 
mate design in Creation. And His prom- 
ise of eternal glory for suffering and 
shame endured for His sake, gave His 
disciples heroic courage to endure the 
persecutions and death which awaited 
them. 

Those things gave a new impulse to 
man's imagination and intellect, and 
moral nature, that has increased from 
that day to our own. They have caused 
our Christian civilization and science, 
and our civil and religious freedom. 

While Christ explained many old mys- 
teries. He made new prophecies which 



k 



A SCIENTIFIC REVELATION. 1 47 

have ever since been fulfilling, and pre- 
paring the way for His second advent. 
Then, He declared, God's purposes in 
creation will be accomplished, and He 
will deliver it up to the Father. 

As we look back to Christ, we see that 
He was a new man, such as had never 
before been seen on earth ; a model of 
holiness, a perfect manhood in the midst 
of a sin-stricken race and sin-deluofed 
world. So now He stands before us, 
alone, in solitary grandeur, between the 
world before Him and the world since 
Him. The only holy, humble, and sin- 
less one of our race. 

His manhood such as no language can 
exaggerate, and with wisdom, goodness, 
and love such as no man could have im- 
agined without His example. No other 
man has been able to reach His standard 
of human goodness. Millions have tried, 
and have gained something of His be- 
nevolent temper and spirit. But not one 
has formed a like character. 

Wherever Christianity went it carried 
new intellectual and moral force. And 



148 THE BIBLE 



no Other way can be imagined, whereby 
God could have revealed Himself, to 
so stimulate human thought and exer- 
tion. His revelations have been perfectly 
adapted to mankind, in every stage of 
their progress and development. 

Persecution made the first Christians 
heroic martyrs. Their faith and courage 
touched the heart of the nations as Chris- 
tianity spread. In three centuries the 
five hundred Pag"an grods of Rome were 
superseded by the true God, and His re- 
ligion pervaded the empire. And ever 
since, it has been gradually gaining the 
ascendency over men. 

Great churches and religious houses 
were built, and many dioceses formed. 
In them religion and learning were pre- 
served, when the barbarians overran 
Christendom, and through the Middle 
Ages. The Crusades were the outgrowth 
of the power of Christianity. Kings and 
princes impoverished their realms and 
estates, for three centuries, to rescue 
Jerusalem and Christ's sepulchre from the 
infidels. 



A SCIENTIFIC RE VELA TION. \ 49 

Serfdom and slavery began to melt 
before its power. Men lavished their 
money in building splendid cathedrals, 
and liberality began to gain the ascend- 
ency over human selfishness. Then fol- 
lowed the revival of learning, and the 
reformation of religion, and the discover- 
ies of Galileo, and Kepler, and Newton, 
and an intense desire to investigate phy- 
sical laws and at last modern science. 

Christ's religion makes the highest 
types of men the world has ever seen. 
And the vast machinery for missions, and 
benevolent institutions in Christendom 
are the last results of its power over men. 

In all this we see the wisdom and 
goodness of God, in so adapting His 
revelations to us men ; that, while they 
accomplished His purposes, as they grad- 
ually unfolded for former generations, 
they are perfectly adapted to the present 
state of mankind, in their highest devel- 
opment. They have always been all- 
sufficient to accomplish His purposes for 
time and for eternity. 

Mankind had its infancy, childhood, 



I50 



THE BIBLE 



and middle age before Jesus was born. 
Its manhood has ever since been matur- 
ing by an intellectual and spiritual devel- 
opment. It was never more restless and 
active than now. This is its last stage in 
time. It foreshadows the outburst of 
new splendor and knowledge which await 
its next change. 

It is the time, foretold by Daniel and 
Habakkuk, when '' The earth shall be 
filled with the knowledge of the glory of 
the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." 
'* Even to the time of the end, many 
shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall 
be increased." The future is a mystery, 
unexplainable until Christ's coming to 
finish Creation, and deliver it to the 
Father. 

Christ is the dividing line between 
ancient and modern civilization and 
science. He began the inductive mode 
of reasoning and teaching in His reve- 
lations of the analogies of Heavenly and 
earthly truths and things. 

Modern civilized society is based on 
Christ's example and teachings. If they 



A SCIENTIFIC RE VELA TION, \ C I 

I . ~ 

I were suddenly ignored, society would 
relapse into barbarism. All modern 
social ethics owe their origin to Chris- 
tianity. The angelic annunciation, '' Of 
peace on earth, and good will to men," 
has gradually spread wider and wider. 

I It is becoming the desire of all the race, 
who have heard of the birth of the Son 
of God on earth, at Bethlehem. And 
men everywhere are becoming Christ- 
like who belong to His Kingdom, and 
try to follow His example. 

Through Jesus Christ, Creation has 
ever since been tending towards its final 
state of Redemption. He was the be- 
ginning of the new Brotherhood of man- 
kind, and the perfecting of Creation, 
when all will be gathered to His Fathers 
and our Father^s Home in Heaven. 



152 THE BIBLE 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE REIGN OF THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 

The Comforter. — The Mystery of His Reign. — Christ in 
the Spirit. — In the Apostles. — To Train Men for Paradise and 
Heaven. — His Power in the Ages to Come. 

"T WILL pray the Father, and He shall 
1 give you another Comforter, that He 
may abide with you forever ; ^ * -'^ 
whom the world cannot receive, because 
it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him, 
but ye know Him, for He dwelleth in 
you, and shall be in you. I will not 
leave you comfortless : I will come to 
you." 

In all Christ's teaching there are no 
more profound mysteries than in these 
words and their context. The evening 
before His crucifixion He told the Apos- 
tles He was about to go to the Father. 
And the Father will send you *' the Com- 
forter, who is the Holy Ghost, whom He 



A SCIENTIFIC RE VELA TION, I 5 3 



will send in My name." [St. John, xiv., 
26.] To send in another's name was an 
Hebraism for sending in his person. 

'' But when the Comforter is come, 
whom I will send unto you from the 
Father'' [St. John, xv., 26], He will 
teach them all things, and bring to their 
remembrance all that He had taught 
them. That is why so many of Christ's 
words were remembered and recorded in 
the Gospels. 

The Holy Spirit co-operated in begin- 
ning the work of Creation and Redemp- 
tion. But now in completing the joint 
works, He would come in union with the 
Son of God's incarnate nature. 

Christ in the Spirit would be present 
in the last dispensation in time. He 
would assist in changing the physical 
Creation, to prepare it for its final, spirit- 
ual, and eternal state. 

Six days before His Transfiguration 
Jesus said to His Disciples, that some 
of them then present would not die '* till 
they have seen the Kingdom of God 
come with power." 



154 THE BIBLE 



He said, " the Father will send the 
Comforter," " I will send the Comforter," 
" I will come unto you," and the Holy 
Ghost will come, "another Comforter; 
He may abide with you forever." [St. 
John, xiv., i6.] 

That was to be the last result of Crea- 
tion, in its progress to Redemption, so far 
as its dispensation in time is concerned. 
That was the reason why it was expedient 
Christ should go away in the flesh, before 
He could return in the Spirit. His 
human nature had to be first- glorified in 
the Godhead before He could return, as 
the Spirit of Christ, in the Comforter. 

St. Paul sums up the mystery, saying : 
" Great is the mystery of godliness. God 
was manifest in the flesh, justified in the 
Spirit, seen of Angels, preached unto the 
Gentiles, believed on in the world, re- 
ceived up into glory." At Jesus' baptism 
the Holy Ghost entered into Him " to 
abide." [St. John, i., 32 and ii:\ 

The Comforter did not come to take 
Christ's place in this world ; but Christ's 
Spirit returned in the Holy Ghost, to 



A SCIENTIFIC REVELATION, I 55 



prepare the way for His Second Advent, 
when He will come visibly in the glory 
of the Godhead. [St. Matt., xxiv., 30.] 

He returned in the Comforter to ex- 
ercise His regal, sacerdotal, miraculous, 
and intercessory power on earth and in 
Heaven. Whatever the rulers of His 
Kingdom do by His power on earth. He 
ratifies in Heaven. [St. Matt., xviii., i8.] 

After His resurrection He gave His 
priestly power to His Apostles. He 
breathed on them, and said, '' Receive ye 
the Holy Ghost.'' ^ ^ ^ - As my 
Father has sent Me, even so send I you. 
Go teach all nations, baptizing them in 
the name of the Father, and of the Son, 
and of the Holy Ghost." 

That was the first time He revealed to 
His Apostles that the three Divine Per- 
sons of the Godhead were to co-operate 
in finishing the physical work of Creation, 
by its Redemption, 

But the Apostles did not then receive 
the power to give the Holy Spirit to 
others. Christ then commissioned them 
only to exercise their office ; they could 



156 THE BIBLE 



not commission others. He commanded 
them to remain in the City of Jerusalem, 
until they received power from on high. 
They waited until the tenth day after His 
ascension, when the Holy Ghost came 
like a mighty wind, and tongues of fire 
appeared on the Apostles, and they were 
filled with the Holy Ghost. Then the 
Kingdom of God came with power. 

Then began Christ's reign in the Spirit. 
He was invisible, and could not be per- 
secuted. He was in the Spirit, and could 
be over the whole world at the same 
moment. He could silently reprove the 
world of sin, of righteousness and of judg- 
ment. 

But His abode was in Christ's body the 
Church. He rules it by calling the 
bishops, priests, and deacons. He sancti- 
fies it by regenerating men in baptism, 
giving the gifts of the Spirit in Confirma- 
tion, and by the Blessed Sacrament of 
His spiritual body and blood to enable 
them to bring forth the fruits of the 
Spirit. 

Christ is as really personally present in 



A SCIENTIFIC RE VELA TION. I 5 7 

the Spirit as He was in His humanity. 
The Church is His spiritual body. St. 
Paul says : '' There is one body, and one 
Spirit even as ye are called in one hope 
of your calling." And again he says : ''If 
any have not the Spirit of Christ, he is 
none of His.'' And to '' every one of us 
is given grace according to the measure 
of the gift of Christ." 

He takes .our created Adamic bodies 
out of the kingdom of nature, translates 
them out of the kingdom of darkness, 
and makes them new creatures in Christ. 
Thus the Church is builded together as a 
habitation for God. ''Ye are the temple 
of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in 
you. 

Christ in the Spirit, and by the Holy 
Spirit, moulds our humanity into His 
spiritual likeness. Not the likeness of 
His Divine Nature, not the likeness of 
His human nature, but of His God-man 
nature, His incarnate nature, making us 
Christmen or Christians. 

Christ, in the Spirit, is a Comforter in 
our sufferings and sorrows. He is our 



158 THE BIBLE 



help in our battles with the world, the 
flesh, and the devil. Through the reign 
of Christ in the Spirit on earth, there was 
given new force to man's spirit to do 
God's will. In Him is the '' all-conquer- 
ing power of Christ's resurrection." He 
regenerates our old nature, and causes a 
perpetual growth of our spiritual life. 
The process is silent and unconscious 
like the natural growth of the body. 

Through the means of grace in the 
Church we continually increase in a 
righteousness like His. He gave the 
model while in the flesh. In the Spirit 
He helps to mould us into its likeness. 

When we use the means, we know by 
our experience that we have the Spirit of 
Christ, and that the Holy Spirit is work- 
inor in and with us. When we lonor and 
strive after more righteousness, we know 
that He is sanctifying us, and Christ's 
life is in us. He works severally in each 
one, according as he strives to conform 
His will to God's will. No two experi- 
ences are alike. But one result follows, 
differing only in degree, according to 



A SCI EN TIFIC RE VELA TION, I 5 9 

each one's co-operation. The seed of the 
woman planted in the Son of Gkdd, and 
communicated to us by the Spirit of Christ 
helps our infirmities, increases our faith, 
love, and obedience, and witnesses to our 
spirit that we are spiritual children of 
God. While He reproves and strives 
with us on earth. He intercedes for us 
with unutterable groanings in Heaven. 

In all those ways the Comforter is 
training us for the rest of the Saints in 
Paradise. There we go in the spirit at 
death, to learn how to live according to 
God in the spirit. So that after our own 
resurrection we may be prepared to live 
in our spiritual bodies in His Kingdom 
in Heaven. 

St. Paul says : '* If the Spirit of Him 
who raised up Jesus from the dead dwell 
in you, He who raised up Christ from the 
dead shall quicken your mortal bodies by 
His Spirit who dwelleth in you," Again 
he says, we are sealed by the Holy Spirit, 
'' Till we all come in the unity of the 
faith, and of the knowledge of the 
Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto 



I 60 THE BIBLE 



the measure of the stature of the fullness 
of Christ." 

We are sealed by the Holy Spirit until 
the day of our redemption from death. 

He is the power of the world to 
come. All things here are tending to a 
spiritual state. And after our resurrec- 
tion this development will not end. 
There we shall see God face to face, 
and because we have the Spirit of Christ, 
shall change into His likeness from glory 
to glory. 

Our union with Christ, through the 
Spirit, can no more be sundered in eternity 
than in time. We are builded together 
in Him as a habitation for God. Then 
God's purposes in Creation, so far as man 
is concerned, will be accomplished. 

Jesus declared, '' I am the light of the 
world," '' the light of life." [John viii., 12.] 
St, John says : *' The life was the light 
of men," ^ ^ ^ ** which lighteth every 
man that cometh into the world." Here 
is another of the wonderful analogies of 
the world of Creation and Redemption. 
Christ pervades His spiritual kingdom as 



A SCIENTIFIC RE VELA flON. I 6 I 



the cosmic light pervades the material 
universe. 

While Christ was in the flesh He was 
the light of the world by His example and 
doctrines. But now by His presence in 
the Church, in the Spirit, He is the Life 
of God unto salvation. St. John says: 
'* As many as received Him, to them gave 
He power to become the Sons of God." 
So now as many as believe in Him and 
enter His Church, He makes '' spiritual 
children of God." 

And St. Peter says, in the Ages to 
come God will show ** the exceeding 
riches of His grace in His kindness 
towards us in Christ Jesus." St. Paul 
calls this, ''the unsearchable riches of 
Christ," and ''the fellowship of the mys- 
tery which from the beginning of the 
world hath been hid in God, who created 
all things by Jesus Christ." 

"To the intent that now unto princi- 
palities and powers in Heavenly places 
might be known by the Church the mani- 
fold wisdom of God." 

And finally as a summary of Christ's 



I 62 THE BIBLE 



Redemption, he said, God *' made known 
unto us the Mystery of His WILL, 
according to His good pleasure, which 
He hath purposed in Himself; that in the 
Dispensation of the fullness of Time, He 
might gather together in ONE, all things 
in Christ, both w^hich are in Heaven, and 
which are in earth, in HIM." 

All this opens to us some vistas of the 
grandeur and glory of God's work of 
Creation, and of its ultimate blessings for 
mankind. And we must wait with the 
patience of the saints, until the future is 
unveiled to us. 

'' Then cometh the end, when He shall 
have delivered up the kingdom to God, 
even the Father; when He shall have 
put down all rule, and all authority, and 
power. For He must reign, till He hath 
put all enemies under His feet." 

*' And w^hen all things shall be subdued 
unto Him, then shall the SON also Him- 
self be subject unto Him who put all 
things under Him, that God may be all 
in all." And all Creation is waiting for, 
and moving onward to that end. 



A SCIENTIFIC RE VELA TION. \ 63 



CHAPTER XV. 



CREATION FINISHED. 



Creation to introduce a Redeemer. — Revelation a Trilogy. 
— Christ its central object. — No break in the chain of His 
Revelations. — New Heavens and New Earth. — Creation 
finished. 

FOR as in Adam all die, even so in 
Christ shall all be made alive. But 
every man in his own order ; Christ the 
first fruits ; afterward they that are 
Christ's at His coming." 

*' Then cometh the end, when He shall 
have delivered up the kingdom to God, 
even the Father ; when He shall have 
put down all rule, and authority, and 
power. For He must reign till He hath 
put all enemies under His feet. The 
last enemy that shall be destroyed is 
death." 

Creation, as viewed in the preceding 
chapters, has been shown to be the mat- 
ter, force, and mechanism of the physical 



1 64 THE BIBLE 



cosmos, in its three-fold relations to God, 
and to our Lord Jesus Christ, and to all 
mankind. And that, in the beginning, the 
promise of a Redeemer looked forward 
to the remedy for its evils, and its com- 
pletion, when it would become eternal. 

The revelations of God to man are a 
trilogy of the drama of His works, and 
words, and life, as they relate to his ori- 
gin and destiny, as they are involved in 
His works of Creation and Redemption. 
All the physical laws in man's body are ot 
a spiritual origin. All the moral laws 
written in his consciousness are spiritual. 
And all the spiritual law^s in his spiritual 
life are also of supernatural origin. All 
these laws are incorporated in man. He 
was created with moral and intellectual 
powers to discern the laws and govern 
his life by them. Faith and obedience 
was, and is, religion. 

These revelations have been a system 
of physics, and ethics, and religion adapted 
to man in all the progress and changes he 
has undergone. And they are now best 
adapted to this last stage, when he is 



A SCIENTIFIC RE VELA TION. \ 65 

acquiring such knowledge of God's laws 
as was never before known. 

From the beginning, Jesus Christ was 
the central object in Creation. As the 
Son of God, He is of one substance with 
the Father. As the Son of man, He is 
of one substance with man. He is the 
point in Creation where matter and spirit, 
and the life of God and man unite. He 
is the centre of the Works, and Words, 
and Life of God. 

Everything in Creation was a beginning 
to prepare for His incarnation. Every- 
thing transpiring on earth since, has been 
preparing the way for His second Advent 
to finish Creation. Man and Creation 
are to pass through one more change, and 
then the end will come. The end of time, 
and the end of Creation under its material 
form, and the end of the Christian dis- 
pensation as it regards time and matter. 
As they began, so will they end together. 

Christ said, His Kingdom on earth was 
not of this world. It is temporary here. 
Its citizens in Paradise are temporarily 
there. The angels in Heaven belong to 



I 66 THE BIBLE 



it. When God's work on men is finished 
they will be like the angels, and all will be 
one in His kingdom. 

There has been no break in God's 
revelations. They have all tended to one 
final result. The work of Redemption 
was coeval with man's fall. It has ever 
since been sufficient to remedy it. It will 
be so to the end. All have tended to 
make God better known, and helped to 
raise man to a higher spiritual condition. 

God watched over the development as 
it went on in all past ages. He is watch- 
ing it now. And Christ made known how 
Creation will end, both as it relates to 
man and matter. By chemical action 
man's body returns to dust, when his soul 
dies, and his spirit ascends to Paradise. 
*'It is sown a natural body, it is raised a 
spiritual body." That will be Christ's 
last work on it. He said the heavens and 
earth will pass through a similar chemical 
change, and be made a new heavens and 
new earth wherein will dwell right- 
eousness. 

There are no words of Christ more 



A SCIENTIFIC RE VELA TION, \ 6 7 

positive and wonderful than His last 
prayer with His disciples. They bear 
directly on the point under discussion 
That is, on the final result of man's Crea- 
tion, and His own Incarnation as the Son 
of God. First He prayed for the glorifica- 
tion of His humanity, as the Son of Man. 

**0 Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine 
own self, with the glory which I had with 
Thee before the world was." Then He 
prayed for His disciples, that they might 
be co-sharers in His glory. 

''Father, I will that they also whom 
Thou hast given Me be with Me where I 
am ; that they may behold My glory which 
Thou hast given Me ; for Thou lovedst 
Me before the foundation of the world." 

'^ The glory which Thou gavest me I 
have given them ; that they may be one, 
even as we are ONE; I in them and Thou 
in Me, that they may be made perfect in 
one." 

'' I have declared unto them Thy name, 
and will declare it ; that the love where- 
with Thou hast loved Me, may be in them, 
and I in them." 



1 68 THE BIBLE 



That will be the end of Creation and 
of the Incarnation, so far as mans 
material and spiritual nature is concerned. 
St. John confirms it, saying, ** Beloved, 
now are we the Sons of God, and it doth 
not yet appear what we shall be ; but we 
know that, when He shall appear, we 
shall be like Him ; for we shall see Him 
as He is." And St. Paul says, *^When 
Christ, who is our life, shall appear 
then shall ye also appear with Him in 
glory." 

Now that condition, which will come 
with our resurrection, will be simultaneous 
with the Creation of the new Heavens and 
the new Earfh. St. Peter thus describes 
Christ's final creative act on the material 
cosmos. He described it by inspiration 
from God, and it is strictly scientific. 

''The day of the Lord will come as a 
thief in the night ; in the which the heav- 
ens shall pass away with a great noise, 
and the elements shall melt with fervent 
heat ; the earth also, and the works that 
are therein, shall be burnt up." 

It has been shown that chemical action 



A SCIENTIFIC REVELATION, 1 69 

organized the material Creation, and by 
its action Christ will dissolve it. 

''Nevertheless we, according to His 
promise, look for new heavens and a new 
earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." 

And Christ in His last memorable 
instruction to His apostles, the evening 
before His crucifixion, said, " I came forth 
from the Father, and am come into the 
world ; again, I leave the world and go 
to the Father." He spake of His entrance 
into matter, and of His going out of it a 
spiritual body. That was its last result 
on Him. 

He told the Apostles also at that time, 
'* And if I go and prepare a place for you, 
I will come again and receive you unto 
Myself; that where I am, there ye may 
be also." 

From all this, we are plainly taught 
that the preparations for that final 
catastrophe are going on in Heaven, as 
well as on earth. That will probably be 
the grandest manifestation of Divine 
power, and wisdom, and goodness that 
has ever been seen in all past eternity. 



1 70 THE BIBLE 



Then God's purposes in Creation will be 
fully perfected and known. 

The last enemy to be destroyed is 
death, which was the first greatest tem- 
poral curse for sin. It came for man^s 
sin, it will be destroyed by Christ's right- 
eousness ; destroyed everywhere but in 
Hell, and to be succeeded in that by the 
second death. That will be the penalty 
for the unrepented sin of men, and of 
angels. It will be eternal suffering, with 
no last pang to end it. 

The eternal punishment of angels and 
men will not be for their past sins. But 
entering on this second death impenitent 
sinners, they will hate God, and keep on 
sinning forever. And sin, there as here, 
will have in itself its self-inflicting penalty, 
and so the punishment will be eternal. 
And not God, but the sinner, will be the 
cause. 

At the end, the living will be suddenly 

changed to spiritual bodies, and, joining 

those risen from the dead, will appear 

before Christ in the new Heavens, to be 

udged. Then Creation will be finished, 



A SCIENTIFIC RE VELA TION \ J \ 

and death will be swallowed up in vic- 
tory. It will then be seen that the 
work was one of infinite wisdom and 
goodness. 

St. Paul says : ** The sufferings of the 
present time are not worthy to be com- 
pared with the glory which shall be re- 
vealed in us. For the creature was made 
subject to vanity, not willingly, but by 
reason of Him who hath subjected the 
same in hope. Because the creature itself 
also shall be delivered from the bondage 
of corruption, into the glorious liberty of 
the children of God." 

Christ said, men will then become like 
the angels. Creation will be finished, 
and annexed to God's Heavenly King- 
dom. Surely such a work was every way 
worthy of the ever-living God. 

The evil, which looks now so enormous 
that men say, a good God never would 
have permitted it, will be seen to have 
been only a temporary condition of the 
incomplete stage of Creation. That the 
good never could have been known with- 
out the evil. And that no greater evil 



I 7? THE BIBLE 



could have happened to men than never 
to have known God, and what goodness 
is. 

If God had made no revelation but 
Creation, and yet had provided a Re- 
deemer, but had not revealed it, then we 
might think that He had dealt unjustly 
with us. And it would be because we 
did not know that it would not look so 
when we knew His whole plan. That is 
precisely our condition now. Creation is 
unfinished. We do not know how glo- 
rious all things will be when it is com- 
pleted. Therefore, we are incompetent 
to judge of it until then. 

But this we do know, that Jesus' sacred 
humanity, for enduring this life's tempta- 
tions and trials, and suffering death for 
our salvation, is now enthroned in the 
Godhead. We know, also, His promise 
to all mankind : 

*' He that overcometh shall inherit all 
things ; and I will be his God, and he 
shall be My son." 

*' Him that overcometh, will I make a 
pillar in the Temple of My God, and he 



A SCIENTIFIC RE VEIA TION. \ J 7) 

shall go no more out ; and I will write 
upon him the name of My God, and the 
name of the city of My God ; and I will 
write upon him My new name." 

'* And I saw a new heaven and a new 
earth ; for the first heaven and the first 
earth were passed away ; and there was 
no more sea." 

Science teaches that such would be 
the result — no more sea — were the new 
Heaven and the new Earth created by 
chemical action, as St. Peter describes 
the passing of the material cosmos into 
the new-born spiritual kingdom. 

'' And I, John, saw the holy city, New 
Jerusalem, coming down from God out of 
Heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for 
her husband. And I heard a great voice 
out of Heaven, saying, Behold, the taber- 
nacle of God is with men, and He will 
dwell with them, and they shall be His 
people, and God Himself shall be with 
them, and be their God." 

*' And God shall wipe away all tears 
from their eyes ; and there shall be no 
more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, 



174 



THE BIBLE 



neither shall there be any more pain : for 
the former things are passed away." 

That is, such will Creation be when it 
is finished. That was what God began 
Creation for. That is the reason why, in 
its green stage, He permitted the entrance 
of evil, that He might accomplish that 
eternal good. 

The world did not know what would 
be the results of Christ's first coming. 
We do not know exactly what will be the 
result of the next coming. But from 
what we do know, the work will be every 
way worthy of God ; and that our God, 
the Creator, is able to bring that eternal 
good out of the temporary evil of Crea- 
tion. 

In this synoptical sketch, which could 
only point out some of the tangents 
where these revelations meet, and throw 
light on one another, there is seen a 
unity and harmony such as none but 
Almighty God could have devised and 
executed. 

But the wisdom, power, and goodness 
of God are the great underlying truths 



A SCIENTIFIC RE VEIA TION. I 75 

everywhere manifested, and in manifold 
ways. They are so many links in a vis- 
ible chain, binding them in unity, and 
uniting them and man through Christ to 
God. He has revealed all we can know 
of Him in our present temporal life. 

And it looks as if it were after some 
such considerations, that the Psalmist 
wrote, 

''The works of His hands are verity 
and judgment; all His commandments 
are sure. They stand fast forever and 
ever, and are done in truth and right- 
eousness." 

And then, as if it were to show the 
connection between the works of Crea- 
tion and Redemption, he said, '' He sent 
Redemption unto His people; He hath 
commanded His Covenant forever ; holy 
and reverend is His name." 

Finally, from this general view of 
God's design in Creation, so far as it is 
cognizable by human reason, it was 
*' according to the eternal purpose which 
He purposed in Christ Jesus, our Lord," 
* "^ * *' of whom the whole Family in 



I 76 THE BIBLE, 



Heaven and Earth is named," to enlarge 
His spiritual kingdom, and His great 
Family there. 

And so St. Paul says to the Christians 
at Ephesus, and to all others to the 
world's end : 

*' Now therefore ye are no more stran- 
gers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens 
with the saints, and of the household of 
God ; 

''And are built upon the foundation 
of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ 
Himself being the chief corner-stone ; 

'' In whom all the building, fitly 
framed together, groweth unto an holy 
temple in the Lord : 

*' In whom are ye also builded to- 
gether for an habitation of God through 
the Spirit." [Eph. ii., 19-22.] 



INDEX 



<o^gj9o 



[Commas denote succession — 92, 9 is 99 ; 120, 55 is 155,] 



Acrid, 98 

Adam, 18. 85. 92, 9. 

20 
Advent, 120. 55 
Ahaz, III 

Air, 44, 5. 50. 69 
Althea, 56 
Analogy, 65 

Analogies, 23. 150. 60 
Analysis, 76. 81. 94 
Anatomy, 107 
Angels, 119, 24, 9 
Animals, 17. 44. 51 
Annunciation, 115 
Archives, 123 
Arranged, 60 
Astronomers, 64. 7 
Astronomy, 20. 30 
Atlantic, 84 

Atmosphere, 40, 4. 62. 
Attraction, 11 1. 36, 8 
Augustus C, 122 
Axes, 34. 7 
Axis, 66. 73, 5. 90 



Bases, 30 
Bearers, 60, 2. 70 



Bible, 13-19. 29. 103, 4, 

108, Biology, 20 
Bishops, 156 
Borealis, 70 
Breath, 92 
Brit. Assn., 105 
Brotherhood, 151 
Bud, 56 



Cambrian, 79 
Carbon, 46 
Carbonic, 44-6 
Carlysle, 26 
Catastrophe, 104 
Cesar, 122 
Chalk, 51. 77 
Chaos, 30 
Chaotic, 34. 69 
70 Chemical, 43. 169 
Chemistry, 20, 3. 39 
Christ, 14. 23, 4. 71. 97, 
8. 109, 10, II. 31, 7. 
150 
Christmen, 157 
Christianity viii. 72. 129, 

43»47, 51 
Christendom, 72. 148 



11. 



INDEX. 



Chromosphere, 66. 70 
Church, 71. 131, 5, 40 
Civilization, 72, 150 
Climate, 107 
Cloudlike, 66 
Coeval, 129 

Combustion, 68, 9. 73 
Comets, 38 
Comforter, 152, 4 
Coming, 174 
Comte, 25 



Day, 36, 7. 40, 9. 58. 62, 

3. 75 
Days, 76. 90 
Death, 95, 7. 108, 70, 73 
Deluge, 18. 89 
Deposits, 102 
Descendants, 83, 4 
Derivative, 94 
Detonates, 68 

Development, 53. 79. 82 
Dispensation, 72. 153 



Consecutive, 58. 65. 76. 86, Drama, 15 



115 
Continental, 51 
Continents, 54 
Contraction, 68 
Corona, 66 
Cosmic, 34, 7, 8 
Cosmos, 30, 9. 122, 68 
Courses, 42 
Create, 29 



Dust, 93. 102 
Dynamic, 69 



Earth, 30-3. 50, 9 
Earthquake, 124 
Eden, 96 
Elastic, 44 



Creation, 15, 7. 31. 48. Electricity, 21. 35, 6. 70 

104 Electro, 23. 61 

Creator, 16-18. 82. 108 Elements, 15. 30, 3. 94. 



Crucifixion, 124, 69 
Crusades, 148 
Cryptogamous, 52 
Crvstalline, 21. 104 
Currents, 42 
Cyrenius, 122, 3 



Daily Sac, 113 
Darkness, 35, 6. 40 
Darwin, 56. 7 



168 
Elohim, 86 
Emmanuel, 112, 15 
Encrinites, 80 
End, 166 
Energy, 65. 70 
Engrafted, 56 
Enthroned, 172 
Equator, 42. 50 
Equatorial, 50 
Era, 123 
Ethics, 151 



INDEX. 



Ill, 



Evil, 96-9. 108, 10, 28, 38, Germinal, 33 



71. 4 
Evolution, 82, 3. 103 
Experience, 158 
Extinct, 53. 84. 102 



Globes, 34, 5, 8 

Globigerinae, 84. 

God, 14, 6. 26. 47. 137 

Good, 108, 10, 28, 74 

Graft, 56 

Gravitation, in 

Groups, 106 

Gulfi 105 

H 



Handiwork, 60 
Harmony, 19. 90 



Faith, 24, 5. 97- ^37 

Families, 93 

Family, 175 

Fibres, 107 

Finished, 173 

Fire, 70 

Firmament, 40-9. 59. 60 Harvey, Prof., 107 

I, 9 Heat, 35, 6. 70 

Flowers, 55 Heaven, 15. 33. 99. I2q, 

Forces, 28. 33 51 

Formula, 64 Hell, 169 

Fossil, 21. 53, 4. 73, 7, 9. Herbs, 55 

82, 4. 102 Hierachy, 132 

Fossiliferous, 104 Hippopotamuses 102 

Framed, 25. 38 Historians, 77 

Free Will, 95, 6, 8, 9. 108 Holy Spirit, 24. 71, 2. 133, 

42. 52 

G Homogeneous, 65 
Horse, 83. 107 

Gabriel, 86. 113-19,21 Humanity VII., I4. 92. 132 

Galaxy, 38 Huxley, 105 

Gaseous, 38 Hybrid, 56. 83 

Gases, 21. 30, 2. 44 Hydrogen, 32. 66, S 
Genesis, 22. 127 

Geological, 106 I 
Geologist, 102, 3 
Geology, 20. 39. 50-3. 79. Image, 59. 107 

103 Imagination, 146 



IV. 



INDEX. 



Immutable, iii 
Incarnate, 59. 117 
Incarnation, no, 25 
Inductive, 73 
Inflowing, 67 
Interpolated, 78 
Invent, 121 
Island, 51 



Jesus, 18. 71. 100, II, 14, 

22, 31, 40, 42 
Judaism, 143 
Justin, M., 123 

K 

Kind, 52. 77, 8, 81, 4 
Kinds, 53, 4, 5. 93 
Kingdom, 98. 126, 30, 34, 
71 



LAMB. 129, 45 

Land, 30. 49. 58 

Law-giver, 22, 9 

Life, 21. 108, 27 

Light, 21. 34, 6. 40, 7. 

59. 60, I. 71. 160 
Light-bearers, 60, i, 9 
Lights 58, 9. 61, 9 
Likeness, 59. 93 
Liquified, 21. 68 
Locomotion, 76 



Luminous, 63 
LyellSir, C, 84 

M 

Magma, 30, 69 

Magnetic, 69 

Magnetism, 21 

Magnetized, 34, 5 

Mammals, 106 

Man, 17. 29. 48. 59. 66. 

88, 91-4 
Manhood, 147 
Marine, 52, 3. 104 
Marl, 51. 77 
Masterpiece, 90 
Mastodon, 102 
Materialism, 27 
Materialist, 89 
Matter, 16. 22, 6 
Mechanical, 43 
Messiah, 112, 13, 40, 2 
Messianic, 126, 28, 31 
Metallic, 65 
Metals, 30, 2 
Metempsychosis, 140 
Metaphysics, 137 
Microscope, 23 
Miracle, in. 31 
Missions, 149 
Molecular, 33 
Molecule, 82 
Monera, 82, 9. 91, 2 
Monkey, 83 
Monotheism, 138, 42 
Monsters, 78 



INDEX, V. 


Months, 6l 


Paradise, 99. loi, 27, 8, 30 


Moon, 30, 40. 60 


Petals, 56 


Mosaic. 33, 9. 63, 103, 27 


Petrify, 105 


Motion, 17 


Phenomena, 25 


Mountains, 44. 51 


Philosopher, 66. (s. 103) 


Mule, 83 


Physical, 15, 7 




Physics, 137 


N 


Planets, 38. 44 




Plants, 17. 52, 3. 68 


Name. T15 


Pneumatology, 137 


Names, 47. 85 


Poles, 42. 50 


Nature, 134 


Polytheism, 138 


Nebulous, 38 


Prayer, 167 


Night, 36. 40, 62 


Pre-existent, 48 


Nitrogen. 43, 4 


Primary, 62 


Nomenclature, 85 


Primeval, 104 


Nostrils, 91 


Primitive, 36 




Protoplasm, 89. 91 





Protozoa, 52, 3. 78. 107 




Protubrance, 66, 8 


Ocean, 51 


Punishment, 169 


Orbits, 34, 5,7 




Order, 18 (s. 93. 133) 


R 


Organization, i6. 32 




Oriental, 140 


Races, 93. 120, 51 


Origin, 29. loi 


Redeemer, 86. 97, 8 


Overcome th, 172 


Redemption v., 71, 3 96. 


Overflowing, 42 


100 


Oxygen, 20, i. 32. 43-6. 


Reformation, 128 


68. 73 


Regeneration, 109 




Religion, 18. 22. 97. 128, 


P 


48 




Remains, 102, 4 


Paleontology, 105 


Reproduce, 97 


Pantheism. VIII. 


Reptiles, 106 


Pantheon, 123 


. Repulsion, 36, 8 



VI. 



INDEX. 



Resurrection, 123, 4, 36, 68 

Revelation, 15. 26. 48. 91 

Revolve, 34 

Rhinoceroses, 102 

River, 51 

Rock, 128, 30 (s. 78) 



Sacerdotal, 155 
Sacrifice, 97 
Saints, 124 

Satan, 97, 8, no, 29, 41 
Science, 13, 4, 6. 20, 2, 4, 
8. 31, 3-46 (of God 

134) 
Sciences, 29 
Scientific, 18. 20. i, 6. 67. 

103, 68 
Seas, 30, 50 
Sea, 173 
Seasons, 58 

Seeds, 76. 93, 8. lOO 
Senate, 123 
Silurian, 79 
Sin, 99. 140 
Skepticism, 26 
Skeptic, 18 
Smell, 85 

Son of God, 73. no, 27, 40 
Son of Man, 110,40 
Space, 35, 6. 61 
Species, 106 

Spectroscope, 23. 34. 65 
Spirit of the Age, 144 
Spirit of God, 86. 95. loi 



Stars, 30. 40, 60 

Stereotyped, 77 

Stratified, 105 

Stratum, 143 

Sun, 30. 40. 60, 6. 124 

Sun-light. 36. 41, 2, 4. 50, 

63, 4, 9- 71 
Sun-shine, 69 
Swaddling, 36 
Systems, 17. 34, 5, 7 



Taxed, 122 

Telescope, 23 

Terrestrial, 65. 104 

Theocracy, 112 

Theologians, 21, 2. 34. 67. 

Theology, 24 

Thunder, 42 

Tiberius, 123, 40 

Time, 28. 62, 104, 65 

Times, N. Y., 57 

Transformation, 84 (ed. 94) 

Transmutable, 57 

Tree, 89. 96 

Trilobite, 80 

Trilogy, 163 

Triplet, 94 

Triune, 92 

Twain, 91 

U 

Unimpeached, 122 
Unity, 31. 99. 104, 74 



INDEX. 



vii 



Unique, 30 
Universe, 14, 5. 32 
Universal, 79, 82 
Unknowable, 22. 53 



Vapor, 43, 65 
Variations, 56 
Varieties, io6 
Vegetation, 45 
Velocity, 69 
Venus, 64 
Vertebrate, 84 
Void, 32 



Water, 32, 58 133. (542,9) 

Water courses, 42 

Weight, 42 

Whirled, 35 

WILL, 28 

Winds, 42 

Woman, 91, 2, 3. icx>. 

Y 

York, 105 



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By the Rev, C. C. ADAMS, S, T. D. 



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